


Triticum Absentis: Conrad

by sweettears90



Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: F/M, Missing Students, Randolph fancies himself cupid, School Dances, Teacher-Student Relationship, but this kills the man (metaphorically), everybody is above age don't worry, illegal use of reading student files, it all works out in the end, shocking i know right?, trying to hook your dad up (awkwardly and not at all obviously), yes I actually have a plot to this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 04:59:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweettears90/pseuds/sweettears90
Summary: Dymphna Ó’Nualláin is the latest new student at Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy. Not only is she on a one-year academic trial before she officially gets accepted, but Professor Randolph has seen to it that she's given a buddy... of Professor Schuyler. Between awkward, forced tea times between Conrad and her, constantly avoiding Luca's less than subtle attempts to hook her up with the professor, and constantly needing remedial lessons, strange things begin to happen on campus, and students start vanishing. Will Dymphna be able to solve the mystery of the disappearing students before the school is forced to close forever?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for reading! So a few things:  
> First off, I wanted to write a series of stories that revolved around the "untouchable" characters from Wizardess Heart. That is to say: Conrad, Randolph, Loran, and Amelia. I've always had such a thing for Snape (because let's not pretend like Conrad isn't basically just Snape), so Conrad's story was written first.   
> I was going to hold off on publishing literally everything until after I'd finished all four stories, but... I feel like I'm only working in bits and starts. I was barely able to finish Conrad's story after several months of it just sitting around. And Randolph's story? Exactly 364 words to date. Le sigh.   
> But in the meantime, here's Conrad's story!
> 
> You might also notice that I changed a few cannon things. Mainly in order to fit the student/teacher relationship, but also because some parts of the game just never made much sense to me. They're all explained in the story, so don't worry too much about it for now. 
> 
> I use the name that I picked for my own Wizardess Heart character, Dymphna Ó’Nualláin. Her name is pronounced like Dim-fanna O-noo-le-an. (Yes, it's very Irish. I am aware!)
> 
> Finally, this has not been proof-read by anybody but me. If you spot any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them! 
> 
> Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update 2/25/19: I fixed the spacing issues with the first two chapters, without changing the content.

The train finally pulled into the station after what felt like hours following my first glimpse of the academy, but in reality, it had only been just minutes.

“Come on, this way,” Mr. Letter said. I gathered my things, as few as they might be, and made my way from the train and onto the platform.

“Wow,” I breathed as I took in the sights. The bustling city of Gedonelune was way better than I ever could have imagined it. Everywhere I looked, there was something new and exciting to take in.

“Dymphna!” Mr. Letter called out to me, and broke me from my thoughts of what I would see in the city first.

“Huh?”

“This is where I must leave you now,” he said.

“What? Already?” I knew that he’d eventually leave, but I didn’t think that it would be so soon.

“Yes. A representative from the school has come to get you. Goodbye.” He gave a little wave of a corner of the page, almost like he was waving goodbye. And then, with a puff of smoke, he transformed back into a regular piece of paper and floated down into my open hands.

“Goodbye,” I whispered. I was about to stuff the paper into my bag when a darkly-dressed figure pushed his way through the crowds on the train platform.

He was intimidating, and tall, with a very stern look. People hurried out of his way, almost as if they knew who he was. Or if they didn’t know him, then they sensed his importance.

I gulped as he strode over to me.

“Dymphna Ó’Nualláin?” he said.

“Y-Yes!” I somehow managed to squeak out. I nervously cleared my throat. “Um, I mean. Yes. That’s me.”

“I’m Professor Conrad Schuyler,” he introduced himself quickly. “I’ve been sent to bring you to the school.” His gaze darkened, and that was pretty impressive, considering how dark that it was to begin with. “Apparently, there have been too many incidents of students running amok in Gedonelune or in the forest. Students have fallen into the lake. That’s where we draw the line.” He looked me up and down briefly, before he looked to my singular bag. “Is that all you have?”

“Y-Yes sir,” I said. My voice was still squeaky.

Without another word, Professor Schuyler turned around and started to walk off. I grabbed my bag and hurried after him.

But not even the presence of a teacher to take me up to the school was enough to discourage my eyes from wandering.

“Honestly, Ms. Ó’Nualláin,” he said after I’d fallen behind after about the fifth time. “Do try to keep up.”

“Sorry,” I said quietly. I vowed to come back to the city as soon as possible and see everything that I was missing… and then some.

Finally, we arrived at the front gates of the school. Instead of going inside the main building, he instead turned to the side and we walked along the front of the building until we walked through a stone hallway and came out in the middle of the courtyard.

A group of students were playing Ladilz on the grassy field.

“This building is where your classes will be,” he said to me as we walked along. “This is the central courtyard, where practical classes often take place. Over there is the greenhouse, and in front of us is the botanical gardens.”

“What’s that over there?” I said as I pointed past the field and game of Ladilz.

“The forest. Please refrain from going inside, Ms. Ó’Nualláin as there are dangerous creatures who call the forest their home.”

I gulped and nodded with agreement. He didn’t have to tell me twice not to go into a place that was inhabited with werewolves and manticores and the like.

We made our way through part of the botanical garden, and he stopped in front of a building. A little ways away, there was a nearly identical building to the one we currently stood in front of. “This is the girl’s dormitories. I will leave you here. However, Ms. Ó’Nualláin?”

“Hm?” I looked up at him, and wondered what he could want. I was beyond eager to escape from his presence for now, and I could only hope that I didn’t have any of his classes.

“The headmaster would like to see you,” Professor Schuyler said. “However, he is busy for the rest of the day. So you will be expected to report to him before first period. The prefect will come and escort you there. Do not go off on your own before you have had a chance to meet with the headmaster. Do I make myself clear?”

I swallowed hard and nodded slightly. “Good. It should be… interesting to say the least to see how you will do here, Ms. Ó’Nualláin. Until tomorrow, then.” With an overly dramatic sweep of his cloak, he turned around and left. I didn’t want to stick around outside the dorms, so I hurried inside.

After speaking with the dorm mother for a few minutes, I went upstairs to meet my new roommate. After I knocked on the door, a cheerful voice told me to enter.

“Hello, you must be Dymphna,” a ginger girl greeted me cheerfully. “I’m Amelia Nile. It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”

After she told me where I could put my various things, we sat down on the twin beds and started to talk. It soon felt like I’d been friends with her forever; she was easy to get along with.

“So those are the professors that you’ve got to watch out for,” Amelia said with a grimace.

“You don’t have to tell me twice about Professor Schuyler,” I said with a thoughtful frown. “He met me at the train station and escorted me onto the campus. He’s so unpleasant and scary; I hope I don’t have him in my classes.”

“Oh no, Dymphna!” Amelia exclaimed. “Since we’re the same grade, of course we’re going to have him. They all rotate, you know?”

“Ugh, what rotten luck,” I said sourly. “And he said that I have to meet with the headmaster tomorrow, too.”

“Oh, but that’s nothing to worry about!” Amelie said with an easy smile. “The headmaster is really nice; you’ll like him a lot. He’s super great, and a great teacher, too. Just make sure that you watch out for Professor Schuyler, though. He’s tough, but a lot of people seem to think that he’s plenty fair. So keep your head down and study hard, and I think that you’ll be okay.”

I offered Amelia an easy smile. “I’m glad that we’re roommates.”

“Yeah, me too,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate.”

* * *

The next morning, Amelia walked with me outside of the dorms. “There’s Emperor Klaus,” she siad. “So I suppose that this is where I’ll leave you now.”

I gave her a desperate look, as “Emperor Klaus” looked just about as mean and intimidating as Professor Schuyler had been. But in a flash, Amelia was gone.

“Dymphna?” Klaus said as he walked over to me. Oh why couldn’t Professor Schuyler have come to get me instead? I was used to his level of scariness now.

I nodded with agreement. “I’m the prefect here,” Klaus went on. “I help enforce the rules around campus, and, when needed, I’ll even help step up and teach a class or two.”

“Wow,” I breathed. That was intense. I couldn’t believe that such a student like that could ever exist.

“The headmaster is expecting us,” Klaus said.

“Right,” I said, and followed after him.

We walked through the corridors of the school, which were occupied by a few other students, despite it being about half an hour before classes started for the day. More than one person gave Klaus a fearful look, though I got a lot of curious looks instead.

Finally, Klaus stopped outside of a door and knocked. “Sir? I’ve brought Dymphna Ó’Nualláin.”

“Excellent. Come in.”

We stepped inside and I was struck by how warm and cozy that the office was. Portraits of former headmasters hung on the wall behind his desk, and a big painting of a dragon hung above the fireplace.

“Dymphna, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the headmaster said. He shook my hand, and gestured towards a chair, which I sat in immediately.

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” I said. I could not believe that I was in the presence of one of the greatest headmasters that Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy had ever seen.

“Thank you,” Headmaster Randolf said with a huge smile. “We’re just waiting for-” He was cut off as somebody knocked on the door. “Come in.”

The door opened and Professor Schuyler walked in. “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Headmaster Randolf said with a faint smile. He gestured towards the only other chair in the room, the one right besides me.

“I’m afraid that I don’t have time for your games today, Randolf,” Professor Schuyler said as he remained by the door. “Would you please tell me why you summoned me?”

“Very well,” Randolf said with a sigh. “But only if you would sit down.”

Professor Schuyler heaved a frustrated sigh of his own and came to sit down. Randolf pulled his wand out and pointed it at me. He cast a spell, and at first, I didn’t think that anything had happened.

Then, I was suddenly being showered with golden sparkles that seemed to come from nowhere. I looked over to Professor Schuyler, who was also being rained upon by the same sparkles. There was also a faint glow between him that led straight to me. Or rather, the emblem on my uniform.

“Huh? What is happening?” I said as I tried to push my awe at the spectacle to the side.

Instead of responding to me, Professor Schuyler jumped to his feet. “This is too far, Randolf,” he snarled at the other man. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Instead of a verbal reply, Randolf only chuckled. That seemed like the wrong thing to do, as it only just seemed to tick Professor Schuyler off even more. However, Randolf didn’t seem to notice… or care.

I looked over to Klaus, who’d remained standing by the door silently this entire time. He could only offer me a baffled look. That was probably not a good sign.

Finally, Professor Schuyler’s eyes darted over to me. He turned to look at Klaus next. “Would you escort Dymphna to her first period?”

“Of course,” he said simply. “But I have a lot of questions.”

“We all do,” Professor Schuyler said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Just… Just go.”

I got to my feet as Klaus opened the door. “Dymphna, Conrad, this conversation is not over.”

“It’s over if I say it’s over,” Professor Schuyler snapped at him. “This is completely inappropriate.”

“I still have things to discuss with Dymphna in regards to her academic career,” Randolf said, as if he needed to remind Professor Schuyler. The professor remained silent on the matter. However, as soon as Klaus closed the door behind us, I heard him talking in an angry but quiet voice.

“What just happened?” I repeated to Klaus.

He only just shook his head. “I won’t discuss anything out in the open. Not right now. Professor Schuyler will explain things to you later, though. Expect to go to his office during your break.”

I could only groan with frustration. I had no idea what was even happening anymore, and the fact that Klaus was purposefully keeping me in the dark only infuriated me further.

He walked me to my classroom, and then bid me goodbye. I walked inside, and was almost immediately set upon by… Klaus?

“Hello, you must be Dymphna,” said the smaller Klaus. “I’m Elias Goldstein.”

“Oh, you’re Klaus’s brother?”

“Yes, that’s right,” he said with a slight nod of his head.

Within a few minutes, I’d met half of the class. They all seemed interested in getting to know me better, which put me at ease. If I would make friends here at the school had been on my mind the entire train ride over. However, my worries were for nothing, as I figured that they would be.

The bell rang for the start of the school day.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” said a boy who’d introduced himself as Luca.

“Huh? Didn’t you just say that you’re in this class?” I asked with confusion. But he was already gone.

“Don’t mind him,” Elias said with a heavy sigh. “He’s always like that. I have no idea how he manages to stay enrolled in the school; he ditches class more often than he attends. Ah, but we should take our seats now; the teacher will be here any minute.”

I sat down in the seat next to Elias and took out a notebook and pen in preparation for the class to begin.

The late bell rang, and still no teacher.

A minute passed, and people began to whisper amongst themselves. Was class canceled today? Was the professor sick or something?

Finally, the door at the other end of the room opened with a bang and Professor Schuyler swept into the room. I got the feeling that his bad mood from earlier was far from over, and I knew that I wasn’t the only one.

“We have a new student, Dymphna Ó’Nualláin,” Professor Schuyler said sharply as he gestured to me. “Let’s begin from where we left off the other day…”

It seemed like an easy enough lecture about the magic theory behind a spell, but I was dreading the practical that he mentioned at the end of class.

“I have some things that I need to take care of, so class will end early today,” Professor Schuyler said. “Ms. Ó’Nualláin? A word?”

I quickly stuffed my things back into my bag and stood. I was so very much aware of all of the eyes in the room on me as I walked up to the podium where Professor Schuyler was waiting for me.

“This way, please,” he said, and gestured behind him. I followed him from the room and into his office.

It was a nice room, and very cozy. It had the same, warm color scheme as Headmaster Randolf’s office, and the desk and chairs looked almost identical. There was a big window behind the desk, and I could see the courtyard below. There were low bookshelves under the window, and they were completely stuffed with books.

“Please, sit,” he said as he settled into the chair behind his desk. Much like Headmaster Randolf’s desk, Professor Schuyler’s was completely cluttered with papers, books, and various knick-knacks. The only difference was that whereas Randolf’s things seemed to carry an air of complete whimsy about them, Professor Schuyler’s things were more… focus oriented. A Newton’s cradle, a stress ball, a desk waterfall.

“Tea?” he offered as a tea set appeared in front of him with a flick of his wand. I silently shook my head. “Please don’t mind me if I have some for myself…” He poured himself some tea, and then added a generous drop of something from a flask. “I apologize, Dymphna. It has been a truly trying morning, and things are far from resolved. Please believe me when I say that I did not want any of this to happen, least of all to you. That being said, please don’t for any second think that any of this resulting mess is your fault, nor do I blame you for what’s happened.”

“Um, Professor?” I said with confusion. “What did happen? What were those sparkles that Headmaster Randolf created between us?”

He was silent for a moment as he took a long drink from his teacup. “How much do you know about the buddy system here at the academy?” he asked me instead.

I blinked with confusion. “Amelia mentioned it last night. I think she said that it’s like… a partnership between students.”

“It’s something like that,” Professor Schuyler said. He set his teacup down and briefly explained the system to me in more detail. “Do you know why I’m telling you all of this, Dymphna?”

I silently shook my head; I was at a complete loss right now.

He heaved a heavy sigh before he picked up his teacup and drained the rest of it. “It’s because that glow that happened earlier was the indication of a buddy bond being forged.”

“What?” I asked, my eyes wide. “But… But you’re not a student!”

“No, I am not. Nor have I ever been, nor do I ever expect to be one. As you heard me yelling at Headmaster Randolf when it happened, this is completely out of line. This is a new low, even for him.”

“But…” I started. I tried to gather my thoughts, but there were just too many questions that I needed to ask right now. And I was painfully aware that the next class period would be starting in a few minutes. “What does this mean for me?”

“I know what the headmaster would like for it to mean,” he said with a growl. “But I think that it would be for the best if we acted like this had never happened. You go on with your life, academic and otherwise, and I will go on with mine.”

I silently nodded. If that’s what Professor Schuyler wanted, then I wasn’t going to argue with him. The fewer connections that I had to him, the better I felt.

“Oh, and Dymphna?”

“Yeah?”

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anybody about this,” he said.

“I won’t,” I promised him quietly.

“Good,” he said firmly.

He then spent the next couple of minutes going over regular school stuff; things that Headmaster Randolf would have told me earlier… had the entire buddy thing not happened. Also, I had completely failed to notice that I was only a provisional student for the next twelve months, which sort of bummed me out a little.

Even after all of the time and energy that I’d spent here at the school, there was a good chance that they might ask me to leave and not come back a year from now.

“But please, do not worry so much, Dymphna,” Professor Schuyler said to me quickly. “It is very rare for a student to fail their initial entrance exam. Only part of it deals with your skills as a wizardess. Half of it is your intent. This is, after all, a school. You are here to-”

The bell rang overhead.

“You are here to learn magic.” He stood. “And that’s the bell, finally. I’m sorry about all of this mess. I will talk again with the headmaster and get all of this sorted out.”

“Thank you, sir.” I stood and left his office quickly. I didn’t feel any better after we’d talked, but it made me understand at least a little bit that, for now, Professor Schuyler was in my corner.

* * *

The rest of the day went by quickly, and before I knew it, classes were over. I stood, and stretched, and looked across the room to my new classmates. They were chatting with their neighbors or leaving to find their friends in other classes.

I grabbed my bag and left the room, intent on either finding Amelia before dinner or heading over to the cafeteria on my own.

However, I was unsuccessful in my attempts to locate her, so I just went to the cafeteria for an early dinner.

“Hey, Dymphna,” Luca said. He was at my side the second that I stepped into the room. “So, you and Professor Schuyler, huh?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, a little birdie told me that there’s something going on between the two of you.”

I hesitated to answer him, but before I could, Elias, Yukia, and Cerim came to my rescue.

“Honestly, Luca,” Elias said with a scowl. “She gets called into a professor’s office to complete her enrollment paperwork, and you’re going around and spreading rumors that they’re sleeping together? She hasn’t even been here for a day yet!”

Luca rolled his eyes, but then offered me a wink. “It’s okay, Dymphna,” he said. He tried to put his arm around my shoulder, but Cerim pulled me away before Luca could do that. “I know the truth. And unlike what Prince Elias thinks, I do know when to keep my mouth shut about certain subjects. Professor Schuyler is off limits, as far as I’m concerned. I was only coming to you to hear it from the proverbial horse’s mouth.”

“There’s nothing going on between us,” I told Luca. “What Elias said is true: I only just went to finish doing some paperwork and such. It was sort of pointless, but you know… red tape.”

“Okay,” Luca said. He made an odd face, but then his cheerful, nonchalant smile returned. He pulled a slip of paper out from his pocket and passed it to me. “You can come drop by to see me at any time. Be sure to ask for me specifically, though.” He winked at me again before he turned and walked away.

I unfolded the paper and saw an address on campus; according to the map Amelia had shown me, this was where all of the teachers lived. Some of them lived with their families on campus, but most lived alone or with a roommate.

Did Luca live with Professor Schuyler or something? Were they related somehow?

“Just ignore him,” Elias said to me. I stuffed the paper into my pocket and nodded with agreement. “He’s always trying to sir up trouble. You just happen to have landed in his cross-hairs today. Tomorrow or even a week from now, he’ll be bored and move on to somebody else.”

“Dymphna!” somebody cried out. A second later, I was embraced from behind by somebody with a lot of orange hair. “How was your first day?”

“Okay,” I said with an absent shrug. “How was your day? How was everybody’s day?” I needed to get the spotlight off from me for a few minutes that I could think about everything without feeling suffocated.

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

Randolf invented the buddy system as a sneaky way to hook different students up. Believe me when I say this, but things on campus used to be a lot worse before he created it. It was down-right embarrassing to watch at times, to the point where I almost wanted to die with how completely awkward that he was being.

However, with the buddy system, all he has to do is a simple spell between the two students. If they interact, which they will, sooner or later, then their emblems will react.

And maybe it seems silly, but it’s actually quite effective. Most of the buddies eventually end up married and their own kids come to the school when they’re of age. I don’t have a statistical number, but it’s quite high.

It’s also not nearly as autonomous as you might think. Randolf works behind the scenes, reading files and performing the spell. He sets everything up all on his own. It’s very infuriating, but he’s also very good at it.

(The worst part is that he has a disturbingly good instinct for those who are gay or otherwise. There are no accidental straight partnerships if one party is gay… even if they themselves might not realize it yet.)

Never in all my life and time spent knowing Randolf would I ever have imagined that I would end up on the receiving end of Randolf’s matchmaking. And never to a student.

The bright side is that at least the minimal age requirement to attend the school is sixteen. Dymphna Ó’Nualláin is eighteen as of this summer. So while the law sees her as an adult… she seems especially child-like.

Those pigtails don’t help much.

And the fact that she’s a student.

…Mainly the pigtails.

Tonight, when Luca came back from dinner, he was all smiles, and wouldn’t stop talking about Dymphna. I regret the fact that she is in his class, but there’s little that I can do to change that.

For now, at least.

Although, judging by the way that Luca prattles on and on about her, I’m going to try my own hand at matchmaking. Let’s see how Randolf likes a taste of his own medicine… And somebody actively working against his own system.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this, please let me know by leaving a review and/or kudos!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exciting but somewhat unrelated update: I was encouraged by the kudos and reviews on the first chapter, so now I've managed to write a whopping 1484 words for the Randolph story! I know that it's not much, but it seems better than it was on Friday. :)
> 
> This hasn't been proofread, so please let me know if you spot any errors.
> 
> Update 2/25/19: I fixed the spacing issues with the first two chapters, without changing the content.

Despite what Professor Schuyler told me, I confessed everything to Amelia that night. But only after I made her swear up and down that she wasn’t to tell a single person about what I was to tell her.

“Wow, no wonder the boys were all so angry during dinner,” Amelia said once I’d finished. “Luca was completely right on the money, but probably for the wrong reasons.” She paused for a second. “But this is the worst though, isn’t it? You’re supposed to become buddies with another student, not a professor. Especially not Professor Schuyler. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to do what he asked of me: I’ll pretend like this never happened, and move on with my life.”

“It’s probably for the best,” Amelia said with a heavy sigh. “It’s late, so I’m going to go to bed now.”

“Okay. I’ll stay up for a while longer and get some studying in. I know that, no matter what happens, Professor Schuyler will be angry at me if my grades start off low. Oh, and Amelia?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember: You can’t talk about this to anybody.”

She mimed zipping her lips up, like we were children. “You know my lips are sealed, girl. You can trust me, okay? I’ll talk to you in the morning; good night.”

* * *

The next morning, Prefect Klaus was, once more, waiting for me outside the dorms. “The headmaster would like to speak with you again,” he said curtly. I nodded slightly and followed after him.

“Hey, P-Prefect Klaus?”

“Hm?”

“You know about the situation between me and P-Professor Schuyler, right? Did Headmaster Randolf say anything to you about it yesterday?”

“Nothing other than to come and get you again,” he said with an absent shrug. “But I understand what you’re getting at. The headmaster has put the two of you into a difficult situation. He’s probably called you into his office right now to tell the two of you that this is a non-negotiable thing, and that you must agree to be part of it.”

I hung my head and sighed deeply.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I wish that I had actual advice to give you right now. It’s my job to console and council the other students. But for once in my life, I’m completely at a loss right now.”

“Thanks anyway. I know that you’d give some if you knew what to say.”

We stopped in front of the door into the headmaster’s office, but Klaus didn’t knock. “Some other advice, though: You should just go along with whatever Headmaster Randolf tells you to do. I know that Professor Schuyler has been working to convince the headmaster not to do this, but the headmaster is a stubborn man. The two of them also have history together, so you should just let Professor Schuyler do all of the talking, okay?”

I could only nod.

Klaus reached around me and knocked on the door. “I’ve brought Dymphna, sir,” he called out.

“Thank you, send her in,” Randolf said from the other side as the door creaked open a little bit. “Klaus? You are dismissed for now. I’ll let you know if I need you again later.”

“Yes, sir,” Klaus said before he turned around and left.

I took a deep breath to steady myself before I pushed the door open all the way and stepped into the office. I wasn’t surprised at all to find Professor Schuyler there, too. He looked angry, but at least his ire was not currently directed at me.

“Dymphna, I trust that you had a pleasant first day yesterday?” Randolf said with a broad smile. “Sit sit!”

“Yes, it was fine,” I said as I took a seat.

“Good, I’m glad to hear that. However, I feel like it would have been a great day if Conrad had accepted your buddyship, rather than to instruct you to ignore it completely.”

“Randolf, this is-” Professor Schuyler started, but Randolf cut him off.

“Ah-ah-ah! How is this any different than any other buddies?”

“For starters, none of them have been with professors,” Professor Schuyler said with an irritated scowl.

“Yes, but Dymphna is… Ah… how should I? She’s different than a lot of the other students,” Randolf said with that same, almost infuriating smile. I barely even knew him personally, though I still respected him as a wizard, and yet, I was almost at Professor Schuyler-levels of wanting to scream at him. “Did you not read her file?”

“No,” he said dismissively. “You told me to pick her up, and I only looked at her photo so that I’d recognize her at the station. I never expected that you’d-”

“Well, here we are,” Randolf cut him off.

Professor Schuyler looked physically pained. He then held his hand out towards Randolf. “Her file, then. I’ll read it now.”

“And what about Dymphna?”

“What about her?”

“I don’t keep teacher files, you know. I don’t have anything to give her about you to read. You’d have her at a complete disadvantage. And that’s not fair to her.”

“Not…” Professor Schuyler bit back a laugh. “Not fair for the girl? Randolf, she’s a child, and you’re putting her in the unfortunate situation between being a student at the best magic school in the world, and-”

“Dymphna, I want for you to know that this is your choice,” Randolf said to me quickly. “No matter what you personally decide to do, it will not affect your enrollment here. Now or in the future. However, I want to be certain that this is one-hundred percent your decision, and not Conrad’s decision. Do you understand?”

I swallowed hard and then nodded.

“Good,” Randolf said with a bright smile. “Except that you can’t really reach a decision about Conrad if he’s refusing to even acknowledge you as anything other than a student. Today, after school. Please make plans to just… talk to one another. For a minimum of an hour. I don’t care where, so long as this happens. And Conrad? I know that you’re uneasy about the other students finding out about this. So you can make any excuse that you want. Remedial lessons. Counseling. Making up a test. But I want this done.”

He leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers, and looked at us over the tops of his fingertips. “Well?”

Professor Schuyler heaved a sigh and turned to me. “My office? I’ll serve tea again.”

“A-Alright,” I somehow managed to stammer out. I didn’t like this any more than I had before Headmaster Randolf had ordered us to do this.

But Klaus’s words about playing along with this kept running through my mind, too.

I supposed that the headmaster would be happy with us if we just made plans… and somebody saw me go into Professor Schuyler’s office after school was over for the day… right? We probably would just sit in awkward silence and drink tea for an hour.

And then, I’d go on my way, and we’d go back to pretending like this didn’t happen.

* * *

The rest of the day seemed to just fly past. I wanted time to crawl at least a little, so that my meeting after school with Professor Schuyler wouldn’t get here quite so fast. But before I knew it, the final bell rang.

I was sluggish to gather my things and leave the room, because I knew that I’d have to go see Professor Schuyler.

“Bye Dymphna,” Luca said as he walked past me. Unlike yesterday, he’d shown up for classes today. He claimed that it was because he wanted to see how this fiasco between me and Professor Schuyler would turn out… But everybody else just scoffed at him.

Apparently, Elias wasn’t the only one who thought that Luca was so full of it, and didn’t believe a word he said. Even though it was partially true.

I was finally the last one in the room, so I made my way to the back door and walked down the hall of the teacher’s offices. I knocked on Professor Schuyler’s door, but didn’t received a reply.

I decided to give him a few more minutes, since maybe he’d had to answer questions or something after class.

“Hello, Dymphna,” Professor Merkulova said as he passed on his way to his own office. “Waiting for Professor Schuyler?”

“Um, yes,” I said quietly. I offered no reason for why I needed to speak to the other teacher.

“Cheer up,” he said with a faint smile. “Try not to let a bad grade get you down. If you ever need to talk, my office is always open.”

“Of course, sir,” I said with a faint smile. I liked Professor Merkulova; why couldn’t we have become buddies?

“Ms. Ó’Nualláin,” Professor Schuyler said as he came down the hallway from another classroom. “Thank you for waiting for me.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Dymphna,” Professor Merkulova. “And good luck.”

He left, and Professor Schuyler unlocked his office. He gestured towards the chairs in front of the desk once again, but he surprised me by sitting in the other chair.

“You didn’t tell him anything, did you?” he asked as he started to prepare tea.

“Ah, no,” I said quietly. “He probably thinks that I’m doing extra credit work to make up for a bad grade or something.”

“Which you could probably stand to do, but Randolf would have my head.”

“Hey!”

“It’s the truth,” he said curtly. He handed me a cup of tea.

I hung my head with shame. “I’ve never been the greatest at magical control-”

“That much is obvious,” he said with a sneer. He was clearly remembering how I’d accidentally zinged a marble around the room in practice today; it had sent three students to the nurse’s office. They were okay, but I was mortified over the experience. “You have a lot of raw potential, Dymphna. However, what you lack seems to be a matter of magical focus. You’re more than capable of casting high-level spells, but then you get distracted and that’s when somebody’s eye gets put out by a marble. I am curious about one thing, though.”

“Hm?”

“Your wand.”

“What about it?”

“It’s ill-suited for a wizardess of your raw talent,” he said. “And it’s old. Why do you keep using it?”

“It was a gift from my parents. When I first started showing signs of being a wizardess, they surprised me with it.”

“I understand that it has some sentimental value for you, but maybe you’d better go to the wand shop in the city?” he said. “They’ll be able to help you find something for your magic, and not… frilly.”

I hung my head and sighed heavily. It was hard to argue with the logic that maybe getting a better wand would help me be a better wizardess. But it was still difficult to deal with the fact that my well-meaning parents had thought more about fashion and my personal preferences rather than anything having to do with magic.

Professor Schuyler grabbed a piece of paper that sat on his desk and jotted something down before he passed it to me. “A permission slip to go into the city soon. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Huh? We need a permission slip?” I’d sort of just assumed that we could go whenever we felt like it.

“You aren’t allowed off campus during school days.”

“Oh, right. Of course.” It made sense; they wouldn’t want the students just… leaving whenever they felt like it. “But, I don’t know where the wand shop is. Can I bring Amelia with me?”

“Your roommate, Amelia Nile?”

“Yes,” I agreed quickly. He took the note back from me, wrote something else, and passed it back. “Thank you.”

“It is in everybody’s best interests if you had a better wand,” he said with a scowl. “In fact, I would highly recommend that you start to practice your lessons every day after school is over.”

“Yes, I understand,” I said heavily.

I took a sip of my tea just to have something to do. I looked at the clock on his wall, since it felt like we’d been here for an hour, but I was dismayed to see that it had barely been five minutes.

Professor Schuyler cleared his throat and took a drink of his tea as well.

This was awkward. Were we just going to sit in silence for the next fifty-five minutes?

He finally put his cup back down and looked at me. “Do you have a lot of family?”

“No,” I said quietly. “It’s just me. My parents died when I was little.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said as he gave me a soft look.

“It’s okay. It happened such a long time ago that I barely remember them. Soft memories of my mom, and playing with my dad. The people in the village where I grew up took care of me. They were all very happy to hear that I’d been accepted here. But I’ve pretty much been doing everything for myself since I was ten.”

“I see,” Professor Schuyler muttered under his breath. Then, a bit louder, “Maybe there is some hope for you, after all.”

I was too embarrassed to ask what he meant by that, so I decided to change the subject. “Um… do you have a family?”

“My parents also died some time ago, but I was already an adult at that time,” he said. “I do have a son, though. He… he goes here, too.”

“Is it Luca?”

That was the wrong thing to say, and he looked beyond angry. “He told you?”

“No, not exactly,” I said with some hesitation.

“Well?” he barked at me. I flinched. “Out with it. What did that boy say to you?”

“Ah, he said a bunch of stuff yesterday about how the two of us were doing… stuff together. When you called me into your office yesterday. And then he gave me the address of a teacher’s house on campus, and told me that I could come over and visit him whenever I liked!” It came out all in a rush, and it was a wonder that he could even understand anything that I said.

But apparently, he did. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger for a long moment and heaved a deep sigh. “Yes, he’s my son. He has a room in the boy’s dorms, but also one in my own private quarters. However, I must say that he really only comes to me and acknowledge our relationship whenever he wants something. A permission slip into the city or money.”

“That’s terrible,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry that he treats you like that.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need your pity, Dymphna. I know that I treated him wrong when he was younger. I was young and stupid when he was born, and his mother died giving birth to him. I was in a horrible situation for multiple reasons, so I took him and I ran away. I wasn’t much older than you are right now, in fact. So I put him in a boarding school until he was old enough to attend here. And by then, I’d obviously started working as a teacher here. He’s a powerful wizard, and the son of a professor, so he was quickly accepted.”

Wow. That was a lot. I had no idea.

But of course I knew that he probably had a life outside of the classroom, but it’s strange for a teacher to just tell me something so… intimate. Like about his dead wife.

I had no idea what to say in response to something like that.

So I remained silent and drank my tea.

“I apologize,” he said quietly after a moment. “I didn’t mean to tell you all of that. Of course, the other teachers here all know that Luca is my son, but I don’t normally socialize with them outside of a work environment. It just sort of… slipped out.”

“It’s… okay. You can tell me anything that you want, Professor. You know that I’ll keep your secrets.”

Of course I’d go home tonight and tell Amelia about this meeting, but I would never ever tell her about Luca and Professor Schuyler’s dead wife. Because that was not my story to tell.

“Thank you,” he said. He then heaved a heavy sigh. “I also wanted to thank you for your patience during… all of this. I don’t know what Randolf is thinking to make a teacher and a student buddies like this. If you ask me, he’s opening the door to madness.”

“Did you try to talk him out of it again today?”

“Sadly, no,” he said quickly. “Immediately after our meeting with him this morning, he left campus for a slew of important meetings. And I would say that he was dodging the issue if I didn’t know his schedule front to back.”

“The two of you seem close,” I said with a faint smile.

“We are,” he agreed quickly. “We’ve known each other since we were kids, actually. But we grew apart when we got older, as what happens sometimes. I forgot about him until after Luca was born and I was looking for a place to stay. He offered to let me crash at the school for a while, and then he offered me a teaching position.”

“Aw, that’s great. I hope that I can have friends like that who’ll help me out of a difficult situation some day.”

“You will. You probably already have them, if what you said about your village raising you after your parents died is true.”

“It is!” I said brightly. “They’re all like my family to me.”

“And what about the place where you grew up?”

“Oh, it’s called Reitz,” I said in a rush. “It’s up in the mountains and…”

* * *

In the end, I almost missed dinner because we were busy talking. Thankfully, Professor Schuyler realized how late that it had gotten, and sent me on my way.

Although getting started had been awkward, we eventually started to open up to one another. He doesn’t seem nearly quite so scary after I started to get to know him. Although he was strict, it wasn’t like he went around and just… yelled at somebody simply because he didn’t like them. He wanted the best for everybody, regardless of what they were able to do.

It’s just that maybe he latched onto students like me simply because he saw that we could be great… if we put in maybe a little bit more effort than what we were currently giving.

Although he didn’t say as much, I got the impression that part of his teaching method was a way of atoning for his neglect towards Luca. If he could make his students into better wizards, then maybe it would somehow make up for the one that truly mattered.

Despite what Professor Schuyler said yesterday, I now wanted to try and get to know him better. I wanted to help him with Luca, and to get over the incredible guilt that he’d carried with him all of Luca’s life. I wanted to be his friend, and not just his student for a few years.

“So, what’s the situation with you and the professor?” Amelia asked as I came back to the room.

I dropped my book bag on my desk chair and heaved a frustrated sigh. “Mind if I tell you while I study? Because after I talked with Professor Schuyler for a long time today, I really want to try and impress him. I need to get my grades up. I’ve only been here for two full days, and already, I feel so far behind.”

“No, go ahead,” Amelia said eagerly. “So you talked to him?”

“Yes. Headmaster Randolf made us sit down for an hour after school somewhere and… just talk. Oh, by the way, will you come into town with me tomorrow to buy a new wand? Professor Schuyler gave us permission to go.”

“What? Of course I’ll go! It’ll be great: I can show you all that Gedonelune has to offer!” She then paused a moment. “What’s wrong with your wand?”

“Professor Schuyler says that it’s ill-suited to my abilities. He said that the people at the wand shop will be able to fit me with something better.”

“Aw, I like your wand. But I suppose that form does follow function, and if he says that it’s not cutting it, then you should get a new one.”

“I’m certain that they could add something… Right? Like a ribbon?”

“Sure! You could add one, too. It won’t be nearly as cute as your current wand, but it’ll be okay, I guess.” She shrugged. “Okay, so tell me about your meeting with him.”

* * *

From the journal of Luca Orlem

I absolutely could not believe my good luck. Not only did I have absolute confirmation about the juiciest bit of gossip that’s been going around the school, but I heard it from the ultimate source: Headmaster Randolf!

My father and the new student, Dymphna, have become buddies.

And the reason why the headmaster told me this?

He said that if I wanted to get my old man off my back, then I should help him push dear old dad and Dymphna together. If dad has somebody else to focus his attention on, he might be less inclined to bother me about… well, everything.

I’m uncertain of what the headmaster gets out of this, but I will say one thing about him: he knows how to play people better than even I do. I am impressed. Talk about life goals!

However, despite how much that I tried to find out about the rest of the situation between dad and Dymphna, everybody blew me off. Said that I was being absurd in talking like that. His royal pain in my butt even went so far as to tell me to stop spreading rumors, or else he’ll tell on me!

Who’s he going to tell? My dad? The headmaster? They’re both in on this!

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

Today was… well, I almost want to say unexpected, but at the same time, I can’t say that I’m surprised that Randolf is being so stubborn about the entire buddy thing. I also can’t say that I’m surprised that he insisted that we spend some time together.

The surprising part about today was how easy that it was for me to talk to Dymphna after we broke the ice a little.

I feel like I have a lot on my chest, and, at times, Randolf is a little too close to me to offer any sort of perspective. And it’s not like I can talk to Luca about this stuff. Although I didn’t exactly tell Dymphna about my relationship with my son, I think that she gets the gist of how it is between us.

As I’m thinking about this just now, maybe there is some method to Randolf’s current bout of madness in regards to my relationship with Dymphna. While I refuse to even consider entering into a romantic relationship with her, maybe there is another motive behind this.

Is she there to help me heal my relationship with Luca?

Is she there to be a surrogate daughter? For me to atone my sins as an absent father to Luca?

I just really wish that I knew what was going on in that mind of his.

Later…

As I was writing, I received a note from Randolf. Somehow or another, he found out about my permission slip for Dymphna and her roommate, Amelia Nile, to go into Gedonelune and buy Dymphna a new wand. He says that it’s completely out of the question for Amelia to go.

I know that the only reason why he’s disallowing this is simply because he wants me to take her.

And since I’m the one who suggested that she go, not to mention that she told me that she doesn’t know where it is, I suppose that this task falls to me.

Also, I can’t help but think of our trip from the train station to the school. She was so distracted. The girl would see a coin on the ground and get lost. I’d better keep a close eye on her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this, please leave kudos and/or a review. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you spot any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them. :)

Amelia woke me the next morning. “There’s a note for you,” she said as she dressed. “It must have come in the middle of the night while we were both asleep, or else I would have woken you up.”

“Huh?” I looked down at where she was pointing, and saw that there was an origami butterfly on my chest. “Oh, it’s so pretty!” As soon as I touched it, the paper unfolded to reveal the note inside.

“Dymphna, I apologize for this, but Headmaster Randolf has disallowed Amelia Nile to leave campus tomorrow. Since you said that you didn’t know where the wand shop is, and because I know that you’ll become hopelessly lost if left to your own devices, I will accompany you. Please meet me by the back gate at 5 PM tomorrow. Conrad Schuyler.”

“Huh?” I reread the note again with sinking disappointment.

“What’s it say?” Amelia said as she plopped down on the foot of my bed.

“Professor Schuyler says that the headmaster won’t let you leave campus today,” I said as I looked up from the note.

“Aw, that sucks,” she said with a pout. She perked up a second later. “Is Professor Schuyler going to take you, though?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Hey, that’s great though, isn’t it? You’ll be able to spend more time with him!”

I didn’t respond, because I didn’t know if it was great. I had actually sort of been looking forward to spending some time in Gedonelune with Amelia this afternoon, but now, I’d have Professor Schuyler. He wouldn’t want to do anything fun, and he probably wouldn’t even let me stop and look at anything that caught my eye. It would be strictly business; there and back as quickly as possible.

However, I dreaded spending time alone with him less than our chat yesterday. This was mainly due to that chat yesterday, because I knew him a little bit better now. It wouldn’t be nearly quite as awkward.

But that still didn’t mean that it would be all fun and games.

I heaved a sigh before I got out of bed and pulled my uniform on. I absently shoved the note into my pocket and left the room with Amelia to go to breakfast.

* * *

Once again, time seemed to fly by today, and before I knew it, classes were over for the day. I shoved my things into my bag and headed to the dining hall for an early dinner.

“Hey, Dymphna,” Luca said. He plopped down in the empty seat next to mine at the table. “Any big plans for tonight?”

“No, not really. Professor Schuyler told me that I had to get a new wand, so I have to go into town and get one.”

“That sucks,” he said as he cupped his chin in his hand. He looked at me for a beat before he went on, “Why’d he say that? Is your wand broken or something?”

“He said that it’s ill-suited for my specific kind of magic.”

“Ah, okay.” He paused, seemingly to digest what I’d just said. “When did he tell you this, exactly?”

I thought for a moment before I heaved a sigh. “I keep getting assigned remedial studies, because I’m so bad at magic.” It was only half of a lie.

“That sucks,” he said honestly. “If you want, I could give you a private lesson? Right now, though. I have plans for later.”

“Thanks, but I have to get going,” I said. Even if I went over to the back gate right now, I’d still be super early. But I didn’t want to spend more time around Luca and have to keep lying to him.

I had no idea how tiring that constantly lying could be until I had to do it.

“Okay. See you around,” he said with a cheerful grin. I grabbed my things and left the dining hall.

I wandered the halls of the school for a few minutes before I made my way over to the back gate. Of course, I was fifteen minutes early, and Professor Schuyler wasn’t there yet.

Thankfully, this wasn’t a part of the school that people tended to come around much. I understood why Professor Schuyler wanted to meet here, since it was less likely that we’d be seen leaving together.

The more time that we would spend together, the harder it would be to deny everything. Luca’s rumor mill wasn’t getting any traction, but that’s not to say that others wouldn’t get suspicious if Professor Schuyler and I kept doing things together.

I sat down against the gate and took out my notes from today to review them while I waited.

I didn’t have long to wait, thankfully. He came over a few minutes after I’d gotten started on my review.

“I would apologize for being late, but you’re here even earlier than I am,” he said. “I am, however, glad to see that you are studying. That being said, I believe that your main shortcomings with magic isn’t the theory of it, but rather, the practical. Which is why we’re getting you a new wand today.”

“Right,” I said. I put my notes back into my bag and stood. Professor Schuyler opened the gate and we set off.

We walked in silence for several minutes through a wooded area. It was a nice day, and I was grateful for an excuse to just be able to walk through the woods. We kept up a steady pace— not too slow, but also not urgent.

Eventually, the trees gave way to some houses. A few minutes more and those gave way to a commercial area.

Unlike the market district between the train station and the school, this area was less crowded and had a more laid-back atmosphere. But then again, it was some distance away from the train station, so it made sense that this area was quieter.

“Hello Conrad!” an old man called out to him as we passed. He and another old man were playing checkers in front of a shoe shop. “Lovely day isn’t it?”

“It is,” Professor Schuyler said.

“Taking a student to see Afon?” the man said.

“Yes.”

“Ah, it’s great to see the newest generation of wizardesses. I swear, they get prettier every year.”

Professor Schuyler grabbed me by the elbow and hurried me away. It was probably for the best, too, as I had no idea how to respond to something like that, and felt awkward trying to think of a response. It wasn’t exactly cat-calling, but it wasn’t exactly behavior that I wanted to encourage, either.

Nothing quite like old men hitting on girls young enough to be their granddaughters.

We walked a few more blocks until Professor Schuyler led me into a small shop. A bell tinkled above the door as we walked in.

The first sight that I got was rows upon rows and columns upon columns of boxes. The shop wasn’t that big, but there was so much crammed into such a small space. And the boxes weren’t that big either, with each one being a few inches wide and deep, but long. However, there were several thousand boxes, and each one was seemingly half-stacked on top of at least three others, if not more.

“Ah, Conrad,” a slender… man? Said as he stepped out from behind a stack of boxes. He was slender with a build that was more typically feminine. However, he was dressed in a waistcoat and slacks, more in the style of a man than anything. And his hair was no help, as it was cropped short. His voice was also no give-away, as it was deep, but neither feminine nor masculine. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Yes, you too, Afon,” Professor Schuyler said with a faint nod. “This is one of my students, and she needs a new wand.”

“Can I see your old one, honey?” Afon asked. I pulled it out, and he gave a slight shake of his head as he glanced at it. “Oh dear. Oh dear. Yes, I can see why you’d bring her here, Conrad. This simply won’t do at all!” He looked back to me. “And while I’m certain that you thought that the wand was adorable when you bought it, it’s not going to help your magic much, I’m afraid.”

Afon pulled a monocle out from his jacket pocket and pressed it against his eye. He then stepped super close to me. “She’s powerful. One of the most powerful that I’ve seen in a very long time, Conrad. It will truly be a great honor to find her a proper wand.”

He leaned in close to me. Too close. I leaned back, but bumped into Professor Schuyler on accident. I blushed and tried to move away from both of them, but Professor Schuyler put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back towards Afon.

“Hm, yes, I see,” Afon muttered to himself. He grabbed my arm and held it out straight. He then got down and looked at it like he was testing the straightness of a table or something. He dropped my arm, and then got down on his hands and knees and repeated the process on my leg. “Fascinating. Would you mind taking off your left shoe, darling?”

“Um, okay?” I said with growing confusion. I stepped out of my shoe as asked. He picked it up and looked at the inside for a moment before he picked up my foot and looked at it, too.

“You can put your shoe back on now,” Afon said as he sprung to his feet. “I know of the perfect wand for you to try!”

He ran off between two shelves of boxes and came back with an armful of them. He shuffled the boxes around in his arms before he produced a wand from the pile.

“Try this one!” he said as he passed it to me. “Try to cast a spell with it.”

“Do a simple light spell,” Professor Schuyler said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “The last thing Afon needs or wants is half of his shop exploding.”

Afon only chuckled at that. “Trust me when I say that she wouldn’t be the first. Go ahead, dear. Give it a try.”

I cast the spell as instructed, but before the words were completely out of my mouth, Afon snatched the wand away from me. “No no no, that won’t do at all! Here, try this one instead.”

That wand met with me accidentally sending boxes zooming all over the store. The next one did start a small fire, but Afon was ready to put it out before it spread.

I quickly lost track of how many wands that I tried, but none of them seemed good enough for Afon. He was always there with another one after some unknown failing with my spells.

An hour passed, and my hand started to cramp. I wanted to beg for Afon to stop. Even the thought of asking Professor Schuyler to step in and make him stop was starting to seem like a good idea.

When finally… “Yes!” Afon said. “Yes! This is it!”

Somewhere behind me, Professor Schuyler snorted, like he’d been asleep, or at least that he’d dozed off a little bit. “That’s it?”

“Yes,” Afon said. He carefully nested my new wand back into the box it had been pulled out from and took it over to the counter. “Wand making and selling is never an easy task, but it is something that I enjoy immensely. Every wizard or wizardess has their own, unique magic. Like finger prints, no two are exactly the same. Dymphna is a very special wizardess; her power is immense. You were right to bring her here, as that old wand of hers was ill-suited for her magic. This new one will do wonders for her, I think.”

We walked over to the counter, and I opened the box to take a look at the wand. It was unadorned. “It’s so plain,” I said with a scowl. I liked the ribbons on my old wand.

“Yes, people can decorate them to suit them,” Afon said. “Wait…” He reached under the counter and pulled out a scrap of black ribbon. “For you, my dear. On the house.”

I beamed at him. “Thanks,” I said. I paid him for the wand, and he wrapped it up into a bag for me to carry back to the school.

“It’s getting late now, so we should head back,” Professor Schuyler said.

“Alright,” I said with a sinking heart. Amelia and I would have taken the scenic route home, at least. We might have had to run across campus to make curfew, but we would have done it, just because. “Bye. It was nice meeting you, Afon.”

“Yes, always a pleasure,” he said with a smile and a wave as we left the shop.

We got to the end of the block when the two old men from before approached us with bright smiles. “See, I told you that they’d come this way, sooner or later!” one said to the other.

“Come on, come on! The party’s just kicking off!”

As he said it, I heard faint music and laughter in the distance. And the air carried the scent of smoke and cooking food. It made my mouth water; dinner seemed like such a long time ago.

“No, we really should get back to the school,” Professor Schuyler said. But the men weren’t having it. One man grabbed Professor Schuyler’s wrist and another grabbed mine and they dragged us over to where the party was going on.

There was a big bonfire and a couple of people were playing guitars. People were dancing hand-in-hand around the fire, but even more people stood in a circle around it and ate.

“Hello,” a boy maybe a few years older than me said. “Care to dance?” Without waiting for my approval or declination, he pulled me towards the fire and we started to spin around and around.

Somebody grabbed the bag with my new wand in it, but I barely even noticed, as I was too busy being led around the fire.

As the song ended, I paused to catch my breath. I looked around for Professor Schuyler, and eventually saw him trying to pull away from a lady a few years older than me. He shook his head, but the woman only laughed.

Then, the music started back up again. Somebody wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back into the twirl of bodies around the bonfire. I wasn’t complaining though, because this was a lot of fun.

I knew that Professor Schuyler would be angry, but for once, this wasn’t my fault.

“One last song for the night,” said one of the guitarists. This announcement was met with booing. “I know, I know, but we’ve all got work in the morning! Anyway, in honor of tonight’s celebration: the love dance.”

I was pulled back into the dancing by another young man. However, unlike the previous dances, this one required switching partners. The music picked up, and we started to move faster and faster. Around and around I was spun, and I started to feel so dizzy.

I knew that I wasn’t the only one, as, all around me, couples started to fall onto the ground.

The next thing I knew, I was face to face with Professor Schuyler. His arm was wrapped around my waist for the moment.

I stared up into his eyes, and felt my face flush… and not just from the excitement of the dance and the heat of the fire.

The music stopped just then, right before he would have handed me off to the next partner.

“The love dance!” the musicians cried out in near-unison.

“The pairs who managed to make it to the end are those who will be sure to end up together,” said the lead guitarist.

Professor Schuyler and I quickly stepped apart from one another, embarrassed by the entire ordeal.

I looked around, and saw that we were only one of three couples who hadn’t fallen over with the accelerando music.

In the distance, a clock chimed the hour.

“Shit,” Professor Schuyler said as he looked around. “Come on, we’ve got to get you back to the school; it’s after curfew.” He paused briefly to make sure that I was following him, and then he began to run back towards the campus.

I didn’t need to be told twice that getting back now without him would be bad. I followed after him as quickly as I could.

We had to slow a little when we reached the forested area, as the path wasn’t nearly as smooth as in the town. I was grateful for Professor Schuyler’s presence, however, as passing through the dark woods gave me the creeps. I remembered what he’d said to me when I’d first arrived: there are dangerous creatures that call the forest their home.

I was grateful to see the gates of the school, and even more grateful to see the dorm building.

“I will speak with the matron,” Professor Schuyler said as we walked up to the front door.

“Huh, really?” I said with some surprise.

“Please, Ms. Ó’Nualláin,” he said a bit sourly. But I got the feeling that he wasn’t all that irritated at me. “This is mostly my fault for allowing us to be dragged to that… soiree, and then being unable to get away before it was after curfew.”

He opened the door and strode across the front hall to the matron’s rooms. He knocked, and she answered with a surly look.

“Conrad,” she said with some surprise when she realized who it was. Her eyes flickered to me for a brief moment before she looked back to him. “What brings you here?”

“Please forgive me, as it is completely my fault that Ms. Ó’Nualláin is late in returning tonight,” he said. “I was giving her extra lessons and lost track of time.”

“I’ll accept this, but only just this once, Professor Schuyler,” she said with irritation. “And only because you’re a teacher. However, don’t let this become a habit. I will have to give you a watch so that you can keep track of the time better.” She chuckled slightly.

“Trust me: this will be a one-time thing, Mona,” Professor Schuyler said with a frown. He turned to leave. “Good night, Ms. Ó’Nualláin.”

“Good night, professor,” I said quietly. With a nod from the matron, I turned and ran further into the building, and upstairs to my room.

Amelia was waiting up for me.

“What happened?” she asked as soon as I got in. “Why are you so late?”

“Amelia, you’ll never believe the night that I had!”

* * *

The next morning came all to fast for my liking. Even when I did close my eyes to sleep, it felt like I was still being twirled around; the song rang in my ears all night.

I looked up and saw Professor Schuyler looking down at me. He leaned down, closer to me and whispered in my ear, “Dymphna! If you don’t get up now, then you’re going to be late!” This, of course, was said in Amelia’s voice.

I jerked awake and saw, not Professor Schuyler standing over me, but my roommate.

“Hurry! You must have slept through the alarm!”

“No, shoot!” I groaned as I jumped up. “I completely forgot to set it last night! I was so wound up! Ugh! I’m going to miss breakfast! Ugh!” I hurried to get dressed.

Amelia shot me a sympathetic look before she headed for the door.

“Huh, what’s this?” she said. A bag was hung up over the doorknob, and there was a simple piece of paper stuck to it. “It’s for you.” She passed it over to me.

I paused with my hair half-up and accepted it. What was it and who had sent it? I pulled out a long but slender box, and pulled it open. Inside was my new wand; somebody had even gone to the trouble to, not only tie the ribbon Afon had given me around the handle, but had also attached a tiny heart, like the kind that you’d get for a charm bracelet.

“Oh, my wand!” I said as I pulled it out. “I completely forgot about it until just now! I lost track of it when I was pulled into the dance last night. Professor Schuyler must have gotten it back and brought it for me.”

“But you said that your new wand was unadorned,” Amelia said with a thoughtful frown. “Did Professor Schuyler do that?”

“What? No way. It was probably somebody from the town.”

In the distance, the first bell rang.

“Shit!” Amelia and I said in near unison. We had about five minutes to get across campus to our classes. I stuffed my wand into my bag and ran out of the room after Amelia.

I’d just gotten into the classroom as the late bell rang. It was then that I realized that we had Professor Schuyler first thing today.

I took my seat with a groan of dismay. After the dance last night, and my weird dream about him, I didn’t know how I could face him.

“Take your seats, class is starting,” said the man in question as he swept into the room. Without preamble, he launched into a lecture.

The entire class period, he called on many students to answer simple questions about the lesson, but not once did he call on me. In fact, I’d say that he went out of his way to avoid having to look in my direction.

At least I wasn’t alone in feeling so awkward about everything.

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

I can’t believe that I allowed myself to be roped into a dance like that. On a school night. While I was escorting Dymphna to and from the wand shop.

I should have insisted that we both leave as soon as we got to the site.

But that woman… she was very persistent. She would not let me go, no matter what I said to her.

And the next thing I knew, I was dancing with Dymphna. The music ended. They said that the couples left standing and together were the ones that would last.

I don’t know how… but I know that Randolph had a hand in this. It’s the only reasonable explanation. Of why those men pulled us towards the party, of why the woman wouldn’t let me go.

I need to get to the bottom of this. Of why he’s so set on pushing us together.

At least Dymphna seemed like she was having a good time. From what little I saw of her when I was arguing with that woman.

The worst part is that, after I smoothed things out for Dymphna with the dorm matron and I went home, my head was swimming with music. I fell asleep and dreamed nothing but of twirling with Dymphna over and over.

I could hardly bear to look at her in class today.

It might be for the best if I tried to distance myself from her as much as possible. And let us all pray that Randolph does not continue to try and push us together even more.

* * *

From the journal of a citizen of Gedonelune

It’s not like anybody ever needs much of a reason to have a party. So when Randolph came to visit us with a request, nobody really thought too much about it.

A party? Tonight? Make sure that Conrad and the young woman he’ll be escorting to the wand shop make it there?

And can we play the Gedonelune Love Dance? Of course!

It wasn’t until after the song had ended and Conrad and the young woman were among the ones standing that I began to question Randolph’s motives.

That girl… I have a granddaughter around her age. She doesn’t need to be with somebody Conrad’s age.

I tried to go up to the school to ask Randolph about it, but somebody at the school said that he was in meetings all day today; would I like to leave a message?

It’s not worth it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please let me know by leaving kudos and/or a review!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you spot any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them!

The days began to blur together, and I started to settle into my new life at Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy. It wasn’t always easy, but I had my friends to help me whenever I ended up in yet another remedial class after school.

However, I did note that Professor Schuyler tried to keep his distance from me. He didn’t call on me in class… not like I raised my hand to volunteer any answers or to show off my non-existent magical skills.

It was almost as if those first few days on campus were nothing but a bizarre dream.

Even Luca’s rumors started to die down… Not like there was a whole lot of fuel for that fire in the first place. But what little remained died completely. People lost interest, and quickly forgot.

It was easy for me to pretend like we weren’t even buddies. I hung out with my friends, laughed over something stupid that had happened in class, worked on homework… And wished that I didn’t have to go to remedial lessons again after school.

“In detention again, I see,” a familiar voice said from the other end of the room.

I lifted my head up from the desk and stifled a groan at the sight of Professor Schuyler. I had somehow managed to luck out all this time, and he had yet to show up to teach the daily extra lesson whenever I had it.

“It’s not detention,” I said rather sourly. I wouldn’t have been so snippy with any other professor, but I felt like Professor Schuyler and I… Well, we weren’t friends, exactly. Something less than that, but more than just a regular student/teacher relationship.

“Well, at least you somehow succeeded in not putting anybody in the nurse’s office today,” he replied just as sourly. “Well? What are you waiting for! Get to work!”

I pulled my wand out and started to practice the spell. On the days where I didn’t have remedial lessons, I’d often practice my magic in the courtyard with Guy. That was, between pick-up games of Ladilz. Sometimes I got Elias and even Joel to help me, but they preferred to stay holed up in the library after school. I think that both of them might be allergic to sports.

Professor Schuyler watched me silently from the desk at the front of the room. I wasn’t even certain what he was doing, aside from just sitting there, but it was making me more than a little nervous. However, I didn’t want to say anything, least I make things even more awkward than they already were.

I didn’t feel so anxious in front of any of the other professors… just Schuyler. And it didn’t really help that I couldn’t put a name to our relationship.

“The way that you’re holding your wand is peculiar,” he said finally.

“Huh?”

He stood and stepped over to where I sat. He pulled his own wand out, and performed the spell that I was attempting. “Look at the way that my hand is on my wand, in comparison to your own. Try to hold yours the same and try again.”

I looked at his hand, and copied it with my own. I looked down to the piece of paper I was trying to transform, and repeated the spell again. The paper shifted slightly, and got a little bit wrinkled, which was better than I had been doing before.

With a wave of his wand, Professor Schuyler straightened the paper out again. “Focus completely on what you want to happen.”

“I am!” I said sourly, but I felt like he wasn’t listening to me. I turned my attention back to the paper and thought only of the shape shown in our textbook. I waved my wand— careful to keep my hand like Professor Schuyler had shown me— and recited the spell. The paper jumped up and transformed itself into a teacup.

“A little lopsided, but better,” Professor Schuyler said. “Again.” Another wave of his wand straightened the paper out again.

I sighed with frustration and did as I was told. I wouldn’t be able to leave until either the hour was up or Professor Schuyler dismissed me. And something told me that he wouldn’t dismiss me until I was able to perform the spell in my sleep.

So I kept at it, turning the paper over and over again into the teacup.

Finally, he didn’t immediately return the paper to normal. I looked over to him, wondering why not.

“That’s enough for today,” he said after a moment. He paused. “How are you adjusting to life here?”

“Good, I think. The classes are hard, but I’m learning a lot. And everybody’s pretty nice to me. I’m making a lot of friends.”

He nodded slightly. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. Your other teachers say that you are willing and eager, but not exactly the most focused. I believe that your lack of focus is a problem with you, and it’s something that should be addressed; I’ll add a lesson about it in our next class.”

He stared at me for a beat. It was awkward, and I wanted to just ask if I could leave yet, or at least go back to the lesson. “And the school dance?” he finally asked.

“Huh?”

“The back to school dance,” he repeated. “It’s two weeks from now. Surely you’ve seen the signs up all over campus.”

“Oh. Right. I have. I’m going with my friends. But this weekend, Amelia and I, as well as a couple of other girls, are going into town to get dresses.”

“I see,” he said slowly. “Well, I wish you luck with your endeavor. And that you’ll have fun at the dance, in case our paths don’t cross again before then. You can go.”

I quickly gathered my things and all but ran from the room.

My stomach growled with hunger, but I pushed thoughts of dinner aside in favor of finding Amelia. I wanted to have her take on the strange conversation that I’d just had.

Like usual, I found her with the usual group of female friends sitting on the side of the Ladilz field. There wasn’t a game going on now, but when there was, they liked to sit and stare at the boys. The boys often took their shirts off when they played, so it was hard not to look.

“Oh hey, Dymphna!” Amelia said with a laugh as I hurried over to the group. “How was remedial lessons today?”

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I said in a rush.

“Sure. What’s up?” She stood and brushed the grass off from the back of her skirt before we started to walk away from the rest of the group. Once I was sure that nobody was around to overhear, I quickly told Amelia about what had just happened.

“That does sound strange,” Amelia said slowly once I’d finished. “But your entire relationship is built on a foundation of weirdness and strange. Maybe Professor Randolph has been pushing for him to talk with you some more?” She shrugged. “Maybe Professor Schuyler is just lonely. We often see the other teachers sitting with each other, talking and laughing and generally just being normal people outside of class time. But I can’t say that I’ve ever seen Professor Schuyler doing that.”

“I know that he’s close with Professor Randolph, but considering what happened because of me, they might not be on the best of terms right now,” I said slowly. I nodded slightly after giving it some thought. “No, you’re probably right. He’s probably just lonely. Maybe he just wanted to touch base with me about how I was settling in.”

“The school dances are kind of a big deal,” Amelia said with a grin. “Everybody’s been talking about it non-stop since the semester started.”

“I know; I was there,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“So it makes sense that he’d want to make sure that you were attending. I think that even those people without many friends would still attend.” She reached out and grabbed my hands. “Ooh, Dymphna! I can’t wait to show you the dress shop! We’re going to find you the prettiest dress imaginable!”

“I can’t wait, either,” I said with a huge grin of my own. “It feels like this week has been crawling by. Ugh.”

* * *

Even though it felt like it would never come, the weekend did eventually arrive. The students are allowed into Gedonelune on the weekends, permitted that they’re back before curfew, or else they’ll get detention for an entire month. The gates are locked and everything, so everybody will know who missed it, too.

As we walked into the city, I thought back to the last time I left the campus. With Professor Schuyler, to buy my wand. That night, we were kind of sucked into some weird dance that the locals were having, and we ended up one of the few last standing partners for some weird romance fortune thing.

I sometimes found myself humming that song every now and then. But every time that I caught myself doing so, I would quickly try to change the song in my head, as if it’s a radio station.

The dress shop that Xandra led us to was small and seemed to know exactly what kind of clientele that it would have this time of the year. All of the dresses were bright, sparkly, and designed with a young girl’s tastes in mind, but also so that they kept up with the current fashions.

“Girls, welcome!” said the shopkeeper. “It’s so good to see you again! Oh, and you must be a new student.”

“This is my new roommate, Dymphna,” Amelia said. “Dymphna, this is the best dressmaker in Gedonelune, Grace.”

“Oh stop, you. You already have my friendship, Amelia. You don’t have to keep buttering me up! Dymphna, let me get the other girls into the dressing room, and then I’ll get you measured, okay?”

“Oh, okay,” I said a bit nervously. Amelia had reassured me that Grace was the best for a student’s budget, but still. Hearing talk about being measured instead of just buying something off the rack had me a bit anxious.

Before I’d left home, the villagers had collected some money for me so that I could buy things that might need, like a new wand, or new clothes. I knew that I could write to them if I ran out before they would send more during the winter holidays, but I would feel bad about it. Especially if I wasted money on something more frivolous, like a dress that I would maybe wear a handful of times.

It seemed like it was not very good to wear the same dress to multiple events. But if I got an expensive dress, I’d be damned if I didn’t get my money’s worth from it.

As Grace showed the other girls some dresses, I tried to casually browse the other dresses Grace had on display. I checked the price tag when I thought that nobody was looking, and was relieved to see that it didn’t cost thousands of dollars.

It was still a little on the expensive side, but it seemed more manageable than I had originally feared.

“Okay dear, if you’d please step up here,” Grace said. All of the other girls were in the changing rooms. I stepped up onto the stool, and let Grace start to take my measurements. “You have such pretty eyes, dear.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“I think that I’ll try to find something to match. Am I correct that you’re looking for something a bit more affordable?”

“Oh, you saw that?” I said as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“No need to worry, dear,” Grace said with a motherly smile. “I was in your shoes once, you know. My freshman year of school, I had one dress that was once my mother’s. I was the complete and utter laughing stock at the school dances. So, I taught myself how to sew. And by the time that I was a senior, all of the girls at my school were begging me to make them a dress. I found my calling. And I know that I could probably charge a lot more for my dresses… But every time that I see a girl like myself, like you, I’m reminded of why it is that I do this. So don’t you worry about a thing, dear. I’ll have a pretty dress fixed up for you. You’ll be the envy of the ball… and you’ll have enough left over to where you won’t have to beg your friends for money for a new dress for the winter dance.”

“Oh wow,” I breathed out once she was done. “That sounds like such an inspiration. I’m very grateful to you and what you’re dong, Grace.”

“Thank you dear. Let’s see what I can whip up in the next couple of minutes…” She went to work to make me a new dress.

* * *

Before I knew it, the day of the school dance was finally here. Classes were canceled for the day; Amelia explained that they used to not cancel classes, but then none of the girls would show up because they were too busy getting ready for the dance. So instead of sitting in on a lecture, or worse, a practical, I spent the day in Xandra’s and Rebecca’s room. They were in the room across the hall from Amelia and me.

I was primped, plucked, painted, and plumped until I felt like I surely wouldn’t recognize myself in the mirror when they were finally done.

“So Dymphna,” Xandra stared with a sly grin. With a twist of her wand, my hair fell from yet another up-do that she was trying. “You’ve officially been here for a month now. Surely there are some guys who’ve caught your attention by now.”

“Caught my attention? Sure. But in a romantic way? Oh no.”

“Do you mean that dumb rumor that Luca insisted on spreading your first couple of days here?” Rebecca said with a roll of her eyes.

“Yes,” I said, grateful for an out.

“Well, there’s still a lot of guys that you haven’t met yet,” Xandra went on. “Yes! This is perfect! What do you guys think?”

“She’s perfection in pink,” Amelia said with a wide grin. “Take a look at yourself, Dymphna.” She held up the hand mirror. “What do you think?”

I looked at myself. Xandra had braided half of my hair along one side, and tucked it all into a bun in the back. It was so simple, and yet so elegant. My eyes had just the hint of pink glitter on them, and my lips were a nude color, to off-set all of the pink.

The dress itself was a medium-shade pink; not too bright but also not demure. Like Grace said, it matched the color of my eyes. The bodice was tight, and sleeveless, with a sweetheart top, that was covered in beautiful beadwork. The skirt was full and fluffy; when I saw the final dress, I seriously thought that it was feathers at first.

Xandra had loaned me some golden hoop earrings that almost matched the beads on the bodice, as well as a bracelet. Amelia had loaned me a handbag.

“I feel like a fairytale princess,” I finally said. “I can’t believe that you guys were able to do all of this! Thank you so much for helping me to get ready! I’m always so hopeless when it comes to hair and make-up.”

“Girl, trust me when I say that we’ve noticed,” Xandra said with a roll of her eyes. “If you ever decide that you need a more mature hairstyle… You know, if you wanted to catch the eye of a more mature man, instead of a whiny little boy like Luca… You can come to me any time.”

“Thanks! I might take you up on the offer.”

Together, the four of us walked across the campus to the auditorium, where the dance was being held. The party was in full swing, since it took Amelia a bit longer than necessary to figure out how to accessorize her golden dress.

Almost immediately, we were swarmed by boys. Some that I knew, but most that I didn’t.

“Hey Xandra, would you like to dance?” somebody asked.

“Sure, but I want to make sure that Dymphna has a dance partner,” she said with a giggle. “It’s her first year here, after all.”

“Uh… Ms. Ó’Nualláin?” a familiar voice said to the side. I looked over and smiled at Elias. He looked embarrassed to be here, almost like he’d been double-dog-dared to come ask me to dance. “Would you-”

“She would!” Rebecca answered for me. She pushed me towards Elias, who looked startled over the sudden turn of events.

I offered him a hesitant smile. “I’d love to dance, Elias,” I said as I held out my hand. He accepted it and led me out onto the dance floor.

He didn’t look at me as we made our way over, but once we were on the floor, he had to turn to face me. I’ve never seen anybody blush so hard before; it was honestly kind of adorable.

“Y-You look really beautiful, Ms. Ó’Nualláin,” he stammered out.

“Thank you,” I said a bit bashfully. “It took the work of the three of my friends. And you can call me Dymphna. We are classmates, after all.”

He stared at me, and I swear that his blush got darker.

We twirled around the dance floor to the waltz, and I am pleased to report that I only stepped on his toes once.

Once the song ended, we pulled apart. I offered Elias a shy smile, which he was quick to return.

“Dymphna, there you are!” Luca said as he came rushing over to me. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Huh, what’s wrong?” Elias said with an irritated look on his face.

“No, this doesn’t concern you,” Luca said sourly to him before he turned his entire body to face me. “Amelia was looking for you. Out in the garden.”

“Huh? Wasn’t she-” I turned to where I’d last seen her on the dance floor. I could have sworn that I saw her dancing with Sigurd a minute before the song ended. I saw Siguard, but he was inviting another girl that I didn’t know to dance. And no Amelia. “I could have sworn that she was just right there. She must have gone outside.”

“Yes,” Luka said with a nod. “She’s in the garden. She said that she was trying to find you.”

“Alright,” I said slowly. “I’m sorry, Elias. I have to go.” I picked up my skirt and hurried outside.

Lights from the auditorium spilled out onto the grass, and they illuminated the start of a hedge maze that had been grown over the past couple of hours with magic specifically for the dance. The tops of the hedges were lined with fairy lights. There were a few benches set along outside the maze, and a few marble statues of twirling couples.

I didn’t immediately see Amelia, so I started walking back towards the dorms. Surely that’s where she wanted to meet with me… right?

But then as I was walking back, I saw a flash of gold and red dart around the corner of the maze.

“Amelia!” I called out to her. “Wait!” I picked up my skirt again and hurried after her.

I ran around the seemingly endless corners of the maze until I was well and truly lost inside. I kept seeing glimpses of Amelia’s dress or her hair… until I suddenly didn’t anymore.

I let out a growl of frustration. I looked around in the hopes that I would see Amelia, or that she’d pop her head around the nearest corner and tease me for having chased her for so long.

But nothing happened.

I decided to try and get out of the maze and head back to the dance for at least a little bit before it ended. I turned around… only to bump right into a dead end.

Another growl of frustration slipped past my lips. I turned around to go back the way that I’d come.

But five minutes later proved that I was so hopelessly lost inside the maze. I swear that I passed the same bench and statue like five times already.

“Did I already pass this way?” I whispered to myself as I turned right instead of left this time.

A moment later, I stepped into a central area with a fountain at the very center of it. There was a cupid at the top, and water poured out from the tip of his arrow. Tiny hearts adorned the sides of each of the three tiers. I hadn’t been here yet, and surely this was a good sign.

A second later, somebody hurried into the central area with me.

“P-Professor Schuyler!” I said with some surprise.

He looked over to me sharply. “Ms. Ó’Nualláin?” he said with some surprise as well. “What are you- NO!” He ran past me and over towards the path that I’d just come through.

Only, there wasn’t a path there anymore.

I turned around to look for the next path… And I couldn’t find it, either. In fact, there were no more paths out from the area at all. We were now boxed in.

“Did Luca tell you to come into the maze?” Professor Schuyler said sharply.

“Huh? Well… Sort of? He told me that Amelia was looking for me, and that she was outside. I thought that I saw her run into the maze, so I followed after her… but…” I trailed off when I realized what had happened. Amelia probably hadn’t been in the maze at all. In fact, I was willing to bet that she hadn’t even left the auditorium.

I was so stupid.

“What are you doing out here?” Surely Professor Schuyler was smart enough to avoid falling into a trap like I had.

“Yukiya told me that he saw… er… something inappropriate happening in the maze. So I left to see if it was true. I thought that I could trust him, but now that I think about it, he’s one of the few people Luca is friends with. Of course Luca wouldn’t be stupid enough to just waltz up to me and tell me some lie. I wouldn’t believe it. But Yukiya is a good kid. Trustworthy. He wouldn’t lie about something like this. Not unless somebody put him up to it. Like Luca.”

I turned around on the spot as I tried to see if some entrance had opened up since I last looked. Then, I walked over to the tall bush that served as a wall and put my hand on it to try and figure out if it was solid or just an illusion.

Professor Schuyler pulled his wand out and tried to cast a spell, only for it to fail. “We’re in a magical dead zone,” he said to me. “Professor Randolph didn’t want for any of the students to cheat at the maze. We also can’t try to push through the bushes, either, unfortunately.”

“Then how will we get out?” I said as panic started to rise up in me. I had spent a lot of money on this dress, and my friends had gone to a lot of trouble to get me ready. And now, it looked like I was going to spend it trapped inside the maze with Professor Schuyler.

“At the absolute worst, we will likely spend no more than a few hours in here,” Professor Schuyler said quickly. “This is the sports field, after all. And there are classes tomorrow. Classes that would like to have practicals. The maze will be taken down, and then we will be freed.”

That was the exact opposite of anything that I wanted to hear. I burst into tears.

“Dymphna?!” Professor Schuyler said with some alarm. “Please, don’t cry. It’s seriously not… Well, this is kind of bad. But it’s not that bad. There’ll be other school dances.”

“I… I’m just so… so… Angry!” I screamed as loud as I could. “What is Luca’s problem anyway?! Why is he like this? What did I ever do to him? I wish that I’d never come to this stupid school! I could just… heal animals in my family home and be happy! And instead, I’m… I’m stuck in this stupid maze while all of my friends are having fun.”

“Please, don’t cry,” Professor Schuyler whispered. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to me. “You’re ruining your make-up.”

“Thanks,” I said. I blew my nose and dabbed at my eyes. An ungodly amount of pink glitter and mascara was now on his handkerchief. I probably looked like a complete and utter mess right now, but I didn’t say anything. I stuffed the handkerchief down the top of my dress; there was no way that he’d want it back right now.

“Dymphna, listen,” he said after a moment.

I listened, but I could only hear the faint tinkling of water from the fountain. “What? I don’t-”

“Shh! Listen!”

I fell silent again, and then I heard it. The distant rise and fall of the orchestra. My eyes widened with surprise. I’d been so beside myself earlier that I hadn’t even noticed.

Professor Schuyler held out his hand to me. I stared at it for a moment before I looked up at him. “May I have this dance?”

With some hesitation, I accepted his hand. He pulled me into the proper position, and then we started to move. Even though we lost track of the song as it got too quiet to hear, we kept going anyway.

I looked up at him, and remembered the last time that we’d danced. Even though that dance had ended with a bizarre prophesy, this somehow felt way more intimate. Maybe because we were alone.

I was just grateful for the darkness, as I’m sure that my face was as red as Elias’s.

Finally, we heard the distant applause from the auditorium. We stopped dancing, but neither of us made any move to step away from one another.

“Dymphna, I-” he started.

And then a panicked scream ripped through the night, only to be cut off.

I gulped. “What was-” I started, but Professor Schuyler silenced me with a hand over my mouth. I realized that the routes out of the center area were now open again.

“Go back to the auditorium,” he whispered to me. “Go this way, and only make left-hand turns!” He pushed me down a path, and then he vanished down another.

* * *

From the journal of Luca Orlem

It was a lot of work to get things just so. I had to pay off Grace, but after she saw Dymphna, she said that things worked out perfectly. Xandra was a lot harder to convince to do things… And she didn’t do them exactly as I had said. She told me at the dance that she’d had trouble getting Dymphna’s hair just so. But at that point, it was all that I could do to just hope that things were close enough.

After all, Dymphna might be pretty, but she’s not exactly my mother. But I hope that Professor Randolph’s plan works.

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

My breath just about left me the second that I saw her across the auditorium. There was no way. Things were too much of a coincidence.

But when the two of us became trapped in the center of the maze together… Things started to add up. How much had Luca and Randolph done? The dress… her hair. She looked so much like Aulelia that I wanted to cry.

She was upset. And who wouldn’t be, after the cruel thing that Luca and Randolph did to her… to us. She wasn’t even aware of her resemblance to the princess.

But then when she started to cry… How my heart ached for her. She’s but a child, who was dragged unwittingly into Randolph’s little games. She should be spending her time at the school being wooed by boys her own age. Going on dates. Milkshakes and chocolates and… whatever it is that kids are into these days. She doesn’t need to be tied down by somebody old enough to be her father, with a child who is two years older than she is!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please don't forget to leave kudos and/or reviews. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you spot any errors so that I might fix them. :)

I followed Professor Schuyler’s directions and made my way from the maze in no time at all. As I ran across the distance between the maze and the auditorium, it suddenly occurred to me how silent that everything was.

There was no easy chatter of the other students. No orchestra playing. No noise whatsoever.

Not since that horrifying scream.

An uneasy chill ran down my back at the memory of it.

When I stepped into the light of the auditorium, somebody threw the door open and gestured me inside quickly. “Dymphna, what were you doing outside?” Professor Merkulova said with some surprise.

“I was lost in the maze,” I said with partial honesty.

He sighed with frustration. “I told Professor Randolph that it was too difficult, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Go over there with the others.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “The other professors went to investigate. Now hurry along then. Find your friends.”

I went off and quickly found Amelia and the others huddled in a group by the door that led back into the school. “Dymphna!” Rebecca cried out when she saw me. “Where were you? What happened to you? You look like you’ve been crying!”

“I’m sorry,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I got lost in the maze.”

Amelia chuckled slightly. “That is so like you, Dymphna. If we were allowed out of the auditorium, we’d take you into the bathroom to get you cleaned up.”

“What’s going on out there?” Guy asked. “Do you know?”

I shook my head slightly. “I don’t know. I heard a scream when I was in the maze. And then I-” I cut off, uncertain of how much and what I should even tell them. “I ran into Professor Schuyler a moment after that. He told me how to get out of the maze, and he told me to go directly to the auditorium.”

“Professor Schuyler?” Amelia repeated with a frown. There was a look in her eye that indicated that she saw behind my lie; that I hadn’t just “run into” him in the maze right before I’d gotten out.

“Luca told me to tell Professor Schuyler that he saw some inappropriate activity going on in the maze,” Yukiya said quietly from the back of the group. “So he was probably trying to find those trouble-makers.”

“But that scream though!” Xandra said with a gasp. “Ugh! It makes my skin crawl.”

“Do you think that it was like… a student getting attacked or something?” Rebecca whispered. Her eyes were wide with fright. “Wait, maybe we should do a head-count! See who isn’t here?”

“But a lot of people were outside,” Luca pointed out. “You know? In the maze? So it wouldn’t be very accurate.”

Rebecca ignored him and started looking around the room. She then moved off.

* * *

We lost track of how long that we were kept in the auditorium, but at least we had the food from the buffet. And the teachers let us go in small groups to the bathrooms in the school. Just because there was an unknown situation didn’t mean that they could deny us our right to use the restroom.

But finally, they let us go back to the dorms, but made us all promise to stay inside that night.

“What an awful end to what should have been the best night of our lives,” Amelia said. She flopped down on her bed, dress and all. “What a complete waste.”

I remained silent as I started to pull off my accessories. They’d have to be returned in the morning. A twist of my own wand had my hair falling in gentle waves around my shoulders.

“What really happened out in the maze?” Amelia said after a moment. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked at me through hooded eyes. Eyes that knew a little too much about my situation already.

I quickly told her of Luca luring me into the maze, and then becoming trapped with Professor Schuyler. And then about our dance.

“It’s so romantic,” she said with a sigh. “I wish that I could get trapped with somebody.” I glared at her, because being trapped with a professor wasn’t exactly anything remotely like what I’d call “romantic”. “I mean, trapped with somebody like Siguard. Or even Guy.”

I sighed and slumped down onto the desk chair. “Hey, would you unzip me? I can’t quite reach…”

Amelia got up off the bed and came over to help me out. I stood up to fully remove the dress, and something white fluttered out from the bodice of my dress.

“Huh? What’s that?” Amelia bent over to pick it up off the floor. “CJS? Who’s th- Oooh.”

“I was upset when I realized that we were trapped, and that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the dance,” I said rather sheepishly. “I started to cry. He gave it to me, but it got covered in my make-up. I couldn’t give it back like that.”

“Then I’ll just put it in the wash bag, and have it washed. You can give it back to him next week.” Amelia went over to the corner of the room where we kept our bag of dirty laundry. Once a week, somebody came by to pick it up, and then they came by the next day to drop off all of the clean clothes. She stuffed it into the bag, and turned back to me with a huge smile. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up and ready for bed. We all had a miserable night after that mystery scream. So at least you’re not alone. I’m sure that in the morning, all of this will seem so silly.”

* * *

The next morning, as Amelia and I trudged down to breakfast, we ran into some other girls. Onces that we were sort-of friends with, and only hung out with simply because we were girls in the same year.

“She just… never came back to the room at all last night,” one of them was saying. Tears streamed down her face.

“I wonder what that’s all about,” Amelia whispered to me.

“She’s all upset because her roommate didn’t come back last night,” another girl, Ophelia said to us with a roll of her eyes. “If you ask me, she probably just went to the boy’s dorm. For sure she’ll be at breakfast and classes today. Alice just always works herself up into such a frenzy and then it’s usually nothing. Or at least, not this levels of complete and utter panic.”

Amelia and I exchanged a worried look. There had been an unexplained scream last night. One that worried the professors enough to cancel the rest of the dance and to keep us in the auditorium for over an hour.

But there was no way that something had happened to Jasmine.

…Right?

As we shuffled into the dining hall, we were met with all of the professors there.

“Good morning students,” Professor Randolph said. He lacked his usual boyish smile, and it made me feel like I’d swallowed a ball of lead. Something must have happened. “We please ask that everybody join us in the auditorium following your breakfast. Classes will not be canceled for the day, but merely delayed.”

A little ahead of us, Alice let out a piercing wail and collapsed on the spot. Not even Ophelia could offer any side remarks about how overly dramatic that she was being. Not with the stern way that Professor Randolph had just addressed all of us just now.

“I’m suddenly not very hungry,” Amelia whispered.

“No, me neither,” I said. “I’m going to grab a piece of fruit for later, though.”

We did so, and then made our way to the auditorium. The stands had been pulled out for us, and they were filling up quickly. The mood was solemn, the conversations hushed.

Slowly, all of the professors started to trickle in. I didn't mean to, but my eye was drawn to Professor Schuyler. He sat down and didn't talk to the other professors around him.

I might have considered it unusual, except for two things. First, I'd never seen him talking any more than necessary with anybody, his co-workers included. Second, much like the students, the professors weren't talking much, either.

After a moment, Professor Randolph stepped up onto the stage. The few whispered conversations that were going on around us quickly stopped. All eyes were on him.

"I know that there have been whispers circling the campus after the events that unfolded last night," he started. His voice was deadly serious. We all hung onto every word that he said. "And I'm here to set the record straight. I don't know what transpired last night. One student by name of Jasmine Alana has gone missing. A search of the campus and its grounds were performed by the staff last night, and we failed to locate her. However, this is no need to jump to any conclusions. Ms. Alana might have just wandered into Gedonelune, for reasons unknown, and might not have come back. She might have decided to just leave the school all together."

"You lie!" somebody screamed out.

"Oh no, it's Alice," Amelia whispered.

"Jasmine's things are all in her room! She wouldn't have left without so much as a clean pair of underwear!" That got people whispering harshly all around us. Alice did have a point. Who would run away without at least a change of clothes?

Professor Randolph gestured for her to sit down, which she did so, but rather reluctantly. He waited for everybody to fall silent before he continued on.

"Regardless of what's happening, this is still an open investigation. The Ministry has been called in to look into this matter further. In the meantime, classes will continue on. However, for the sake of safety, I would ask that all after-school activities be canceled for the foreseeable future."

A groan of disappointment went up amongst everybody.

"What are we going to do without ladilz after school?" Guy said loudly a few rows ahead of us. "We'll be so bored without anything to entertain us!"

"I also ask that, for your own safety, that you don't travel anywhere alone," Professor Randolph went on. He practically had to yell in order to be heard over all of the students complaining about this. "However, we are confident that Ms. Alana will be found in short order, and that life at the school will go on as normal. Thank you. Please report to your first period classes."

We sat for a moment before a handful of people rose to head to class. I stood as well, completely unable to believe what I was hearing.

"There's no way that Jasmine was hurt... right?" I whispered to Amelia as we made our way down the stands. "This is supposed to be a safe school."

She had no answer for me.

* * *

A week passed. And even though it was rough without being able to do anything besides eat, sleep, and hang out in the dorms or library, it was easy to forget that something so horrible had happened.

Or not happened. Because they never actually found Jasmine. Whether good news or bad, nothing ever surfaced about what had become of her.

Alice remained insistent that something bad must have happened to her roommate. However, without any evidence of Jasmine being grabbed or murdered or something equally awful... the ministry was forced to admit that she might have just left, and had decided to leave everything behind for some reason.

But that's not to say that they didn't stop searching for her.

I wasn't supposed to know about any of that, but word of things passed around campus like wildfire. I knew that Luca was probably to blame for a lot of it, but at the same time, the teachers didn't exactly stop us from talking about it whenever we got the chance.

But life went on. I went to classes. I studied. I played cards with the other girls in our dorm rooms. It was no substitute to watching the guys playing ladilz, but since there was no more of that going on, playing cards would have to do.

"I fold," I said, and laid my hand down on the ground before me.

"Me too," Amelia said with a heavy sigh. Xandra and Rebecca were quick to throw their hands down, too.

"I'm so sick and tired of playing cards!" Xandra said with a groan. "I wish that they would just lift the stupid campus ban. I want to go shopping on the weekends!"

"And eat ice cream!" Rebecca said. We all nodded with agreement. It was almost amazing how easily that I'd gotten used to life here... and now it was odd that I couldn't do simple things like go into Gedonelune on the weekends.

"So, Dymphna," Rebecca said coolly. She started to gather up all of the cards. "You've been here for what? Two months now?"

"Er... something like that. Yeah."

"You've probably seen most of the guys that the school has to offer. You got your eye on anybody yet?"

"No, not really," I said with a heavy sigh. "And anyway, I'm more focused on my education right now. I'm not really looking for a relationship."

"Aw, that's too bad," Rebecca said with a heavy sigh.

"Don't be like that," Xandra said sharply. "Not everybody views coming here as a dating service."

"Yeah, but you always hear things," Rebecca said. She tapped the cards against her leg to straighten them up, and then she set them off to the side.

"What do you mean?" Amelia said with a frown.

"I mean that there are stories going around. About the buddy system. That there's hardly anybody who ends up with a buddy who doesn't end up married to them. I heard somebody say that there's like a ninety-percent success rate or something."

"Don't be absurd," Xandra said with a roll of her eyes. "Don't listen to her, Dymphna. She's talking nonsense again."

“It’s getting late,” Amelia said. “I should get some studying in.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said quickly. I was grateful for an out.

“Ah, good luck,” Xandra said as she leaned back on her hands. “I think that we’re having a quiz with Merkulova tomorrow.”

“What?” Amelia said with a groan. “No way. I hate that.”

“Haha, sucks to be in your class!” Rebecca said with a giggle.

“Laugh while you can, because you will eventually be on the same section,” Xandra said with a roll of her eyes.

With that note, Amelia and I slipped out from their room and went across the hall to our own room.

“What was that about?” Amelia whispered once we were alone.

“What Rebecca was saying about the buddies being soul mates or whatever?” It had startled me more than I had realized. Out of the four of us, I was the only one with a buddy. But it wasn’t like Xandra or Rebecca knew about that, though.

My immediate thought was to brush the entire thing off.

But I also thought of how weird that the entire situation was. I remembered when Professor Schuyler and I first became buddies. His immediate reaction was to jump up and tell Professor Randolph that it was “inappropriate”. I had just thought that he meant a man of his age hanging around a student in a non-teacher capacity.

Had he been talking about something else?

While I was pondering this, Amelia went over to the clean laundry bag. We had gotten into the habit of never actually putting away our clean laundry, and instead, only just pulled stuff out as we needed it. Was it wrinkled? Sure. But a quick spell would fix that right up.

She dug around for a moment before she pulled something small out. For a moment I thought that they were panties, but then I realized that the shape was all wrong. She passed it to me, and I saw the CJS embroidered in one corner.

“Ooh, I forgot all about that!” I gasped out as I took it from her.

“You should use it as an excuse to stay later and talk with him tomorrow,” Amelia said.

“Huh? About what?”

“The buddy system, silly! Ask him if any of that is true. If anybody would know, it would be Professor Randolph. But since he’s not likely to actually tell you yes or no, then you should go to the next best person: Randolph’s friend as well as your own buddy! He wouldn’t lie to you. Not if it could possibly concern you.”

I hesitated at Amelia's words. It might offer some insights as to why this had happened. But I felt like even if Professor Schuyler would tell me– something that I doubted very much– it would likely raise even more questions. Probably ones that not even Professor Schuyler could answer.

I stared down at the handkerchief. My eyes traced the embroidered letters on the one corner.

"Dymphna?" Amelia said softly. "Don't you want answers about this?"

"I do, but..." I clenched the handkerchief in my fist. "I'll return it tomorrow. And maybe we happen to have a conversation. About what, I don't know. But we'll see. I haven't been alone with him since the dance."

"That's the spirit!" Amelia clapped my shoulder before she turned away. "Now, if you don't mind, I actually do need to study. Xandra wasn't kidding about that test."

"Yeah," I said. I stuffed the handkerchief into my pocket and walked over to my own desk. "I should do some studying of my own."

We both sat down and cracked our books open. The room was filled with the sounds of pages being turned as well as of the scratch of pencil on paper.

"But hey, if one thing, I've been forced to stay inside and study all week," I said. "I haven't had to stay after class for remedial lessons."

Amelia laughed. "Is it because the teachers don't want for you to stay in the main building longer than necessary? Or because you're actually getting the hang of things?"

I didn't answer, but I hoped that it was the latter.

* * *

The next afternoon, after the last class had dismissed for the day, I went to the teacher's hall to wait for Professor Schuyler.

I didn't have to wait long.

He came by, talking about a test with the English professor.

"Dymphna, what a pleasant surprise," she said with a faint smile. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"She's standing in front of my office, Misty," Professor Schuyler said evenly. "I believe that it's me she's come to see."

"Ah, right. Better get to work on that English paper, Dymphna. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Right," I said quietly.

"And I'll see you at the staff meeting tomorrow, Conrad," she said before she continued on.

Professor Schuyler and I both watched her until she vanished inside her own office. He then turned to me.

"I don't care what Amelia or any of your other friends might have suggested," he said a bit sourly. "I don't have any more news of Ms. Alana's whereabouts or what might have happened to her than any of you do."

"Actually, I came to return this." I pulled the handkerchief out of my pocket and presented it to him.

"Hm? Oh. I had completely forgotten."

"Me too," I said a bit sheepishly.

He accepted it from me before he looked around rather sheepishly. "Would you like to come in for some tea?"

"That would be lovely," I said. An excuse not to go straight back to the dorms was a welcome one right now. And I trusted that Professor Schuyler would escort me back.

I followed him into the office, and he set about making the tea quickly. I felt the overly familiar awkwardness whenever I was alone with him start to creep up.

I didn’t want to just ask about the buddy system thing, like Amelia had suggested. But I also didn’t know what else to talk about.

“Er, that’s the first time that I’ve seen you talking with another professor,” I said quietly.

“I talk with the other professors,” he said a bit defensively. He then heaved a deep sigh. “Granted, I’m not really friends with any of them except for Randolph. And lately, I feel like my relationship with him has been…” He struggled to find the right word.

“Strained?” I supplied. “Awkward? Weird?”

He chuckled slightly. “Yes to all of the above?” He sighed heavily again.

“Um, professor?” I said with some hesitation. “There’s something I wanted to ask you. About the buddy system.” He looked at me until I went on. “Rebecca said that it’s some kind of… marriage thing?”

Professor Schuyler put his teacup down and stared at me for a moment. I was worried that I might have crossed a line with that question.

“It’s why I didn’t want for you to get involved with any of this, Dymphna,” he said evenly. “It’s why I was fighting tooth and nail to get Randolph to reconsider. It’s his brainchild. A way for him to play matchmaker, but from afar.”

I stared at him for a long moment, uncertain of what to say.

“Why did I get dragged into this?”

He shook his head. “That I can’t really say. I’ve known Randolph for a long time, and not even I really know what it is that he sees in the student files in order to make such good matches. I also don’t know why he decided that he should…” He gave an awkward cough. “Try to pair the two of us up. I’m sorry, but I kind of gave up trying to pry answers out of him. You’d have better luck trying to convince a manticore not to devour your magic.”

I shook my head slightly. “None of this is your fault either. You shouldn’t feel like you have to constantly clean up after Professor Randolph’s poor decision making.”

Professor Schuyler stared at me. I blushed and looked down into my teacup.

“Sometimes, you seem wise beyond your years, Dymphna. And other times…”

“I make it rain frogs in the classroom?”

“You make it rain frogs,” he said with a smirk.

We lapsed into a heavy, awkward silence. “I know that you said that you don’t know anything about Jasmine’s whereabouts, but do you know if we’re going to be able to get back to normal activities soon?”

“Eager to have remedial lessons are we?”

“What? No! Of course not! I’m just… Not just me, but we’re all feeling very restless. Being cooped up inside all day long isn’t good for us.”

He sighed a little. I wondered what kind of trouble that the usually active students like Guy were getting up into. I hadn’t seen him much since we were in different classes, and we had to stick to the dorms unless we were in classes.

“I would love nothing more than for things to go back to normal around here,” he said. I wondered if he was talking about being able to spend time outside, or from before we became buddies. “But I also agree with Randolph. Something odd is happening around here. And until we find answers about what happened to Jasmine, it would not be wise to just let everybody run around freely.”

The clock at the center of campus chimed the hour. Professor Schuyler put his tea cup down. “I should walk you back to your dorm now.”

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

It was probably a mistake to invite her into my office. It was probably a mistake to talk with her.

Even after the disastrous dance, she looked nothing at all like Aulelia. But those feelings inside of me after seeing Dymphna dressed like that remained.

A mistake is how I classify all of this. That and “Damn you Randolph”.

But I must admit that she’s insanely easy to talk with. And I feel like it’s been so long since I had a decent conversation.

I just wish that she hadn’t heard the rumors about what the buddy system is actually for. Even if they are completely true. It just made things even more awkward between us.

The last thing Dymphna needs is the thought that the headmaster took one look at her student files and said to himself “I’m going to hook this eighteen year old up with her teacher! Brilliant idea Randolph!” That’s likely exactly what he said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please let me know by leaving kudos and/or a review! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if you spot any errors so that I can fix them!

As time began to pass, we eventually forgot about Jasmine. We were allowed outside again, as everybody decided that, whatever might have happened to Jasmine, the simple fact that nobody else had gone missing in the weeks since then, clearly, it wasn’t going to happen again. But we were still advised to travel in groups, and to not be out at night.

Trips into Gedonelune were still off the table. But at least we could play ladilz after school again.

For some unexplainable reason, I found myself in Professor Schulyer’s office a couple of times every week. At first it was just for tea. But then he started to give me extra lessons sometimes, too. And with those lessons, I felt like my confidence as a wizardess really soared.

“And then the rabbit said to me ‘That’s no turnip! That’s my wife!’”

Professor Schuyler threw his head back and laughed soundly. My heart soared at the sight of him like this. He always seemed so grumpy and unpleasant. Especially when he was teaching classes. But when it was just the two of us, I felt like he was able to let his walls down a little bit. He showed his true self.

And I was happy that I was able to help him to do that.

“I had no idea that rabbits could be so…” He struggled to find the right word.

I chuckled slightly and shook my head. “Animals are kind of like people. You think that you have a sub-sect of them pegged, and then there’s one who marries a turnip.”

He snorted into his tea and we both burst out laughing again.

A second later, the door flew open and Professor Randolph burst into the room. He had a frantic look on his face, but it quickly morphed into surprise at the sight of me in Professor Schuyler’s office.

“Dymphna. It’s nice to see you. Conrad, would you please escort her back to her dorm? And on your way there, please make sure that all students are in their dorms with strict orders to remain in there until further notice? After, I need you to report to my office at once.”

“Professor…?” I said quietly as I looked between the two of them.

“Of course,” Professor Schuyler said. He stood at once and gestured for me to follow him. Professor Randolph ran out from the room ahead of us and vanished into another professor’s office.

“What’s going on?” I whispered as we marched through the halls. They were deserted, even though there should have been plenty of students around still. Something horrible was happening.

“I don’t know,” Professor Schuyler said lowly. There was a hint of unease in his voice.

We hurried across campus to the dorms, where we ran into other students being escorted back to the dorms by Klaus. Professor Schuyler looked like he wanted to say something to me, but he wasn’t about to in front of a lot of people. So instead, he simply turned around and headed back to the main building with Klaus.

I headed upstairs to my room, where Amelia was waiting.

“Oh, I’m glad that you’re here!” she said the second I stepped inside. “Something weird is going on.”

“Yeah,” I said. I quickly told her about Professor Randolph.

“For once, you know more than I do,” Amelia said with a worried look on her face. She looked out the window. “Do you think that somebody else has gone missing?”

“I honestly don’t know. But whatever it is, it spooked Professor Randolph something bad. I’ve never seen him like that before.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “And I don’t like that feeling. He’s the most powerful wizard that I know, but if he’s scared…”

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. It’s not like he— or the rest of us— are alone. The ministry still has agents hanging around. Whatever’s going on, I’m sure that Randolph has them involved with this, too.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Dymphna, there’s no safer place right now. Whatever’s going on, we’ll be okay.”

“Yes, you’re right. The teachers wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us.”

Amelia nodded firmly. She then offered me a coy smile. “So, you and Professor Schuyler sure are having tea a lot lately.”

Instantly, my face heated up. I let out a groan of frustration and flopped face-first onto the bed. “Shut up,” I said. My voice was muffled by the blanket. “We’re friends, okay. You didn’t say anything when Rebecca and I went to ladilz practice without you.”

“Because I don’t think for a second that you’re trying to hook up with Rebecca,” Amelia said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m not trying to hook up with Professor Schuyler!” I hissed at her.

“But you said that Professor Schuyler admitted that it’s exactly what the buddy system is for,” Amelia said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m sure that Professor Randolph was only thinking of that when he saw the two of you alone together.”

“I’m sure that he was thinking of whatever emergency is happening, and not my non-existent love-life with his employee.”

“Right,” Amelia said with a roll of her eyes. “Well, whatever. I’m going to-” She opened the door to leave, probably to go across the hall to Rebecca’s and Xandra’s room.

“GET BACK INTO YOUR ROOM, YOUNG LADY!” Ms. Nevin, the girl’s dorm matron, barked out from the end of the hall.

Amelia let out a startled yip and slammed the door shut. “Guess we’re not going to go visit with the others…”

“They’re probably doing a head-count of the students,” I said quietly. “If somebody else vanished, they might want to check and make sure that nobody else did, too.”

Stunned into silence, Amelia sat down hard on the edge of my bed.

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

A few minutes of strained, tense silence passed. Ms. Nevin opened the door and clicked at her wand twice.

“Ms. Nevin, do you-” Amelia started. But Ms. Nevin had already slammed our door shut and had moved on.

“She’s doing a head-count,” I repeated myself.

I got up and walked over to my desk. I might as well study while we were on lock-down.

* * *

We weren’t allowed out from our rooms until the next morning. And then, we were instructed to go straight to the auditorium.

“Something must have happened,” I whispered to Amelia as we made our way downstairs. “Something a lot bigger than Jasmine just vanishing.”

The other students were somber and quiet. They must have guessed what was up as well. As we made our way into the stands, I noted that the atmosphere was somehow even worse than the initial meeting about Jasmine’s disappearance.

“Do you think that they found her?” Luca whispered from behind us.

“Who?”

“Jasmine of course,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “The teachers seemed very upset over something last night. And to call another meeting like this?”

“Attention please,” Professor Randolph said as he stepped up to the podium. “I have some very upsetting news. More students have disappeared without a trace. The ministry is stepping in to investigate. This isn’t just about one girl just… running away. Something is happening to the students. Effective immediately, the entire campus will be on a strict lock-down until the matter is cleared up. However, for the time being, classes will still proceed as usual.”

Unlike the previous time that he’d announced the school-wide lock-down, everybody was silent as the grave following Randolph’s announcement.

I didn’t know what to think about any of this. The only thing that I knew was that something bad was going on here.

I felt so powerless to stop it.

And then I had a horrible premonition: I could very well be next.

Professor Randolph hadn’t said who had gone missing, but it probably wouldn’t take too long before the entire school figured it out.

The dining hall was quiet. It was almost as if people worried that if they spoke in anything louder than a whisper, something horrible might happen to them as well.

"Okay, so, I've been asking around, trying to figure out who's been missing," Luca said. He slid into the seat across from where Amelia and I sat. Our oatmeal sat in front of us, growing colder by the minute. But it was the absolute last thing that any of us wanted to eat right now. "In case you hadn't noticed, but Randolph didn't exactly say who had gone missing, or even how many students."

"The way I see it, it wouldn't take too long before we figured it out on our own," Elias said from next to me. "I wonder why he couldn't just tell us?"

"It's four people this time: Clarence, Lisa, Nulpi, and Elena." Luca looked proud of himself for his detective skills. We just gave him a disgusted look. "What? You were dying to know, weren't you?"

"We were, but you don't have to seem so self-congratulatory about the entire thing," Elias said with a sneer.

"Oh no, not Nulpi," Amelia said with a sigh. "We're in math together. She always lets me check my homework against hers. Now how am I going to get a passing grade?" She sighed heavily and poked at her oatmeal.

"What do you think happened to them?" Rebecca said quietly.

We all exchanged a glance. Nobody— not even Luca— wanted to say it out loud, least our words make it somehow come true. But I thought that we were all thinking it.

Five students didn’t just vanish for no good reason. Especially not five students with different backgrounds, from different classes, and different years. I didn’t know Clarence or Lisa, and I didn’t know Elena that well. But I was friends with Nulpi and Jasmine.

* * *

Classes that day were weird and tense. The magical teachers only focused on the practical as much as possible. And I noticed that they were all trying to teach us various defensive spells.

It didn’t exactly take a genius to figure out why.

And the rest of our classes… the non-magical ones. Those were quiet, and not a lot of work was done during them.

After school, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to speak with Professor Schuyler about all of this. However, I didn’t want for Amelia to worry about me. So first, I headed to where she had her last class of the day.

“Oh, Dymphna! I was just coming to find you!”

“Yes, same here,” I said quickly. “Listen, I wanted to talk with you-know-who about all of this.

“Oh? He might not be in his office, you know. He seemed distracted today.”

“Really? I don’t have him today. Will you come with me and wait with me, then? If he doesn’t show up, then at least…”

“Professor Schuyler!” Amelia called out.

I blushed as I spun around. He was there, along with Professor Randolph.

“Ms. Nile,” Professor Schuyler said evenly. “Ms. Ó’Nualláin.”

“Dymphna was just looking for you,” Amelia said with a huge grin.

“She was?” Professor Randolph said as he looked between me and Professor Schuyler. “I would love it if you had time to spare to speak with your students, but unfortunately, we’re both needed for the investigation. Another time, perhaps.”

“Wait, professors,” Amelia said quickly as both men turned to leave. “Is there any updates? Er… Jasmine and Nulpi were our friends. We’re very worried about them.”

“No, I’m afraid that the ministry is even more stumped than before,” Professor Randolph said as he stroked his beard. “It’s almost like they vanished into thin air without a trace.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, but how did you know that the other students had gone missing at all?” I said with a frown.

“I didn’t know that so many had gone missing all at once,” Professor Randolph said slowly. “But there was another scream. Like the one Professor Schuyler said the two of you heard the night of the dance. I ordered all of the students to return, and a count be conducted.”

“We have to leave now,” Professor Schuyler said. He glanced at me before he turned to leave.

“I’ll have him send you a message later, Dymphna,” Professor Randolph said to me in a conspiratorial whisper. He offered me a wink before he turned and hurried to catch up with Professor Schuyler.

We watched them until they turned a corner and were gone. Amelia shook her head and pulled on my elbow. “Let’s get back to the dorm while there’s still plenty of people headed back, too.”

We were silent on the way back. Even though we ran into a group of girls we were friendly with, we were all silent. Things were too weird right now for casual conversation. Too scary.

But once we were alone in our room, Amelia turned to me with a huge grin.

“What’s that look for?” I said with some unease.

“Don’t be daft, Dymphna!” she said with a shake of her head. “It’s clear to me what’s going on.”

I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the edge of my bed. "Well maybe you'd like to fill me in. Because I'm completely lost."

Amelia sighed with irritation and sat down next to me. "It's clear that there's a lot more to your relationship with Professor Schuyler than just one between a student and her teacher. I'm willing to bet that if you weren't his student, then he would totally put the moves on you."

"And I'm willing to bet that he wouldn't. Because I'm young enough to be his daughter. And besides, if I hadn't come here, then there's no way that we would have met at all."

Amelia elbowed me in the side. "If the two of you were fated to be together, then I'm sure that he would have somehow ended up in... whatever town that you're from. Or you could have ended up coming here for some reason or another."

"But it's pointless to talk about that, because I'm his student. And I'd like to continue to be a student here until I graduate. Thank you very much!"

I stood and walked over to the desk.

"Are you seriously going to study right now?"

"Yes," I said with irritation. "You can go play cards or whatever. But I should focus on my studies right now."

"Fine," Amelia spat out. "Maybe I will." She stormed from the room, and didn't hesitate to slam the door behind her.

I sighed with frustration. Why was everybody so caught up in my love life except for me?

Also, why did everybody just assume that I wanted a boyfriend, let alone somebody who was twice my age?

This entire situation was maddening.

But I had to focus on that, or else I would start to think about the missing five students. And thinking about that was somehow even worse than everybody wanting for me to hook up with Professor Schuyler.

* * *

"Dymphna, wake up," Amelia whispered as she shook me.

"Huh?" I sat up, and part of the page of our textbook came with me. I gently pulled it off, and then rubbed at my cheek. "What's happening? Did anybody else go missing?"

"No, no word on that just yet," Amelia said. "But this was on your desk. Probably from Professor Schuyler, as Professor Randolph promised." She held out an origami butterfly.

The second I touched it, the paper unfolded to reveal the note inside. I instantly recognized Professor Schuyler's handwriting.

 

_Dymphna_

_I apologize about earlier, as well as the behavior of Professor Randolph. As always, I wish that the current situation was different. For both of us._

_However, that’s not to say that I haven’t been enjoying the time that we’ve spent together. You are a wonderful person and I enjoy your company._

_I’m deeply sorry about earlier. I wish that I could have made time for you, as the meeting that Randolph dragged me to was not exactly what anybody would call productive. By any means._

_Would you care to drop by my office after school tomorrow? I’d like to go over some spell-work with you. I think that you will find the spells to be useful in the near future._

_-Conrad_

 

I read through it twice, hardly daring to believe that he’d been brave enough to write all of those things. And he had also signed off with his forename.

Finally, Amelia snatched the letter from my hands and read through it herself.

“H-Hey!” I gasped out.

“Would you relax? I’m probably the only other person aside from the two of you who knows exactly what’s going on between the two of you. With how strained that Professor Schuyler’s— or should I say Conrad’s?— relationship between him and Professor Randolph is right now, I doubt that Professor Schuyler would talk about this with him.” She rolled her eyes and grinned.

I felt myself flush, even though I had no reason to be embarrassed over my relationship with Professor Schuyler.

I reached out and snatched the letter back from Amelia before I crumpled it up and tossed it into the bin.

"Hey, come on!" Amelia said loudly. She tried to reach around me to get to the bin, but I pulled out my wand. With a single flick, everything inside caught fire in an instant.

I was just grateful that the bin was metal, or else the fire could have gotten out of control.

I was also glad that I was a stronger wizardess than I had been even just a month earlier, or else I likely would have set Amelia on fire instead.

We both sighed as the fire burned itself out quickly.

"Dymphna, I'm sorry," Amelia said with a shake of her head. "I shouldn't be pushing you into a relationship with Professor Schuyler. You're right: it is kind of messed up. But it's clear that he likes you. And as more than just a student."

"And you're also right. Professor Schuyler doesn't exactly have a lot of other friends. And he's said to me on more than one occasion that he feels that Professor Randolph really crossed a line, and is being really weird about the entire thing."

"What do you say in response to something like that?" Amelia said. With one final puff of smoke, the fire burned itself out completely. All that was left was bits of ash and something metal that couldn't be destroyed in such a small fire.

"I don't really have much to say about something so delicate," I said with a shrug after a moment. "Professor Schuyler was in a very difficult position before he came here. Professor Randolph was Schuyler's only real friend during that time, and he helped Schuyler get back onto his feet. And I don't want to be the wedge that drove their friendship apart."

Amelia huffed. "If you ask me, it was Randolph who drove you between the two of them." She rolled her eyes. "And anyway, are you going to go to tea with him tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course. It's not like I've got much better to do. And besides, he's been helping me with my magic sometimes. I think that our one-on-one lessons are much better for me than being in class. As he always pointed out when I first came here, I had the theory down pat. But it was the actual act of getting out my wand and doing what I intended that was the problem. He said that getting a new wand that was better suited to me helped a lot. And then a bunch of little things."

I sighed as I stood up and walked over to the window. There was a balcony, but the doors were locked with a strong magic that would take a lot of work to get open. The balcony looked over the gardens, and I could see a corner of the school in one direction.

"Besides," I said quietly as I looked out over the garden. “If I don’t focus on something like Professor Schuyler, then I think that I would just make myself sad constantly thinking about what happened to the five missing students.”

Amelia had nothing to say in response to that. I turned around and went back to my desk. But the homework load had been light today, thanks to teachers not knowing what to do about everything.

Instead, I spun around in my chair and looked at Amelia.

“Hey, do you have any more of that magical paper?”

“Sure,” she said as she pulled the pad out from her bag. “Are you going to write a letter to Professor Schuyler?”

“Yeah, I agreed.”

I ripped off the sheet and started to write.

 

_Professor Schuyler_

 

“You’re not going to call him Conrad?” Amelia said from behind me.

“S-Shut up. Just because he’d like to be familiar with me doesn’t mean that I’m comfortable being familiar with him.”

 

_Thank you for your letter. It eased some of the tedium of being stuck in the dorm all evening. As I’ve mentioned to you previously, there’s only so many card games that you can play before you want to murder somebody with the playing cards._

_We’re all very anxious to hear any kind of word about what’s going on. I have to continue to keep myself distracted, or else I’ll get too sad. And it’s hard when there’s nothing else to do at the school besides go to class and stay in the dorms all the time._

_I’m looking forward to your lesson tomorrow._

_Dymphna_

 

I picked up the paper and read through my note to make sure that it said all that I needed it to.

Satisfied, I gave a tap of my wand, and the paper folded up into a butterfly. It slid out a crack in the balcony door and vanished into the evening.

After it had vanished, I got up from the desk and went over to my bed. “I’m going to sleep now.”

“But it’s barely seven?” Amelia said with a weird look.

“And what else would you want to do? Play cards? No thanks. I’ll just go to sleep.”

* * *

Across the campus, an origami butterfly slid between the cracks for Conrad Schuyler’s window, and flew over to his desk. He was grading papers, and was mildly irritated to see the note.

A wave of his hand sent it to the side, where it sat until he finished the paper that he’d been working on.

With an irritated sigh, he put the paper on the “done” stack, and put the cap back on his pen. He then reached for the note, which unfolded the second he touched it.

He leaned back in his chair with a scowl on his face. But it quickly turned to a faint smile at Dymphna’s familiar scrawl.

* * *

From the Journal of Conrad Schuyler

Once again, Randolph is there, telling me how to live my life. He promised Dymphna that he would make me write a letter to her later. Which I begrudgingly sat down to do upon Randolph’s utmost insistence after our insipid meeting.

There’s been a lot going on in my mind lately. Classes. Luca. My continuously strained relationship with Randolph. And now these missing students and the investigation into that.

But when I was writing that note to Dymphna, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I was, dare I say, thinking of the next time that I’d see her again. I thought of some defensive spells that were probably a little bit more advanced for her, but I know that she’ll be able to handle it.

I just don’t know what I would do if she were to vanish next.

I honestly wasn’t expecting for her to write a note in response, but when she did, it felt like things got a tiny bit brighter. Like the world sucked a tiny bit less simply because she wrote me a note.

Maybe there is something more to what Randolph has been saying? I haven’t been able to get her out of my head since the dance.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this, please don't be shy! Leave kudos and/or a review! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you spot any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them!

A few more days passed without incident. Classes went on like usual, but there was an underlying tension that wouldn’t go away. It was so much different than when Jasmine vanished, because we guessed that there was something much bigger at play here. This wasn’t just “teenage rebellion” anymore; it was serious business.

At first, the entire campus simply remained on edge.

And then everything started happening.

It was slow at first.

* * *

“Hey Dymphna, Amelia. Have you by any chance seen Fiona?”

“No, sorry.”

“Not since yesterday? Ah, she wasn’t in class today, was she?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m worried about. I haven’t seen her at all. She wasn’t there when I woke up, and she wasn’t in class. I checked the infirmary, and she hadn’t been there either.”

Amelia and I exchanged a worried look.

* * *

It was one student at a time for a few weeks.

And then it was a handful of students each time.

What had originally started off as full classes and a busy dorm slowly dwindled to a handful of students in each class.

No more did the professors let us walk anywhere alone. But we had once thought that there would be safety in numbers, and we had been told time and time again not to go off on our own. However, it was clear that it was just pointless talk, as, despite all of the warnings, people continued to disappear.

And what’s worse is that it seemed like there were no more answers now than when Jasmine had first vanished.

* * *

One morning, about a month and a half following Jasmine’s initial disappearance, I awoke to find Amelia not there. She normally waited for me, but maybe she’d gone on ahead to the school to do some studying before classes. Even though we were constantly told to be careful, the school still remained opened, regardless. So it wasn’t all that unusual.

I shrugged off the uneasy feeling in my gut and pulled on my school uniform. I checked the calendar to see which classes I had today, and smiled slightly to myself. Another after-school meeting with Professor Schuyler.

That thought alone was enough to push Amelia’s absence from my mind and put a spring in my step. I ran down the stairs to the entrance to the girl’s dorm, and waited there for some others to show up so that we could walk to school together.

After a moment, Xandra, Azure, and Mary showed up. Rebecca had vanished about a week earlier. And the others had lost their roommates as well.

The three of them stopped before they got to me.

“What?” I said with some unease. I looked down at my shirt to make sure that it wasn’t stained, and that my skirt didn’t show too many wrinkles.

“Where’s Amelia?” Mary said quietly.

“Er…” The sinking, awful feeling came back all in a rush.

We all exchanged a look. “Maybe she went in early with the student council girls?” Azure said, her voice low.

“Yes, that’s it,” Xandra said. She tried to offer us a smile, but it came off as more of a grimace. “She probably just went in to study for a test or something.”

They were empty words. We’d said the same thing when Rebecca and the others had vanished.

“Ready?” Xandra said. We nodded, grasped our wands, and left the dorm.

We remained silent and walked fast. Our eyes constantly scanned the areas around us until we got into the school.

“I’ll see you for dinner,” Mary said as she and Azure left for their classes.

“Later,” Xandra said. “I hope Amelia turns up.” It was an empty promise. Once somebody was missing, then it wasn’t likely that they would come back.

With heavy feet and an even heavier heart, I turned and made my way to my first period.

* * *

I didn’t have any classes with Amelia, so I wouldn’t know if she had gone missing or not until dinner.

And not knowing was complete and utter agony.

It felt like every second that ticked by mocked me.

But finally, finally, the bell for the end of the school day rang. I all but bolted from my seat and ran to Amelia’s final class of the day.

There were only a handful of students left in her class, and as they stepped out from the room, they all looked gloomier than the next.

My stomach sank when I realized: Amelia wasn’t there. It wasn’t like her at all to just ditch class.

She was missing.

With a heavy heart, I turned and made my way to the front of the school. There was a group of girls waiting for a few others to come so that they could walk back to the dorm together.

I barely knew them, and the only reason why I did was simply because of the horrible events that had been going on.

I stared down at my shoes for a moment before I looked up and looked at the faces of the girls. Really looked at them.

When I had first come to the school, all of the other students had seemed so cool. So put together. All of the girls looked like they knew how to do hair and make-up spells to make themselves look pretty in an instant.

But now, they all looked tired. Worn down. Their clothing was wrinkled, and one girl’s skirt was on inside out. Another girl was missing one sock completely. And a third girl wasn’t even wearing the uniform shoes.

I wondered why nobody had written them up for this, but then I realized: it’s because this is hurting everybody. From the prefects to all of the teachers. It wasn’t just the students who were suffering.

And as I looked around at the other girls, I realized that they all looked like how I felt on the inside.

I’m sure that I looked a complete and utter mess, too.

Finally, at some unspoken signal, we left the school together. The walk across the gardens to the dorm was much like the walk in reverse that morning. We were silent, our wands at the ready, and our eyes constantly scanned around for any sort of danger.

When we reached the dorm, we started to break off into smaller groups. Some of them went off to the ground-floor rooms, while I continued on up to the second floor, and then the third.

I walked along listlessly until I reached my door. And then I just stared at the numbers.

When I’d first arrived, the gold had seemed so sharp and perfect, even the little scratches on it. I remember knocking on the wood, and the friendly, yet unknown voice bidding me to enter.

“Hey,” a gentle voice said behind me. I jumped a little at the sound, and spun around.

It was Alice.

“Oh, h-hey,” I stammered out.

“It’s Amelia today, isn’t it?” she said.

I nodded and tried to will myself not to cry.

“You don’t have to be strong in front of me. Remember? I was the first.”

I nodded slightly. With all of the people who were now missing, it was easy to forget that Jasmine had been the first. In light of the other disappearances, Alice’s voice had slowly drifted to the back of everybody’s outcries.

“I’m not going to stand here and tell you that everything will be okay. But I’m telling you that it’s a lot easier if you keep yourself busy. You should have stayed at school, at least. Had dinner with your remaining friends.”

I nodded again, and wiped the tears before they could fall from my eyes. “I just didn’t really want to be around anybody right now. Besides, I’m not hungry.”

“I get that,” she said gently. “But Amelia wouldn’t want for you to hurt yourself because of her.” She patted me on the shoulder slightly. “Get some rest, okay? You can come see me if you can’t sleep. There’s a couple other girls who’ve been sleeping in my room. The dorm mom doesn’t even care right now. Everything’s just so…”

She ran a hand through her hair and heaved a heavy sigh. There were too many words that would complete her sentence, and yet, nothing quite seemed to cover all of what was happening.

“Thanks,” I forced myself to whisper. I turned and walked into the room, even though it was one of the hardest things that I’d ever had to do.

The room was exactly as how I’d left it that morning. There was my night dress on the bed, and my journal on the desk. Amelia’s things were completely untouched, too.

She really was gone.

“Keep myself busy,” I said to myself, quoting what Alice had just said to me.

I looked around the room for something to do. Something mindless but time-consuming.

I spotted the laundry bag. I knew that there were more unsorted laundry bags in the closet. Amelia and I often joked about when we would get to sorting through our things, but we never actually did.

Tears welled in my eyes, but I forced them down. I had laundry to sort, and I couldn’t stop to cry over Amelia’s absence.

I upended the first bag on my bed and started to sort through things. Socks and underwear went into the bottom drawer. Shorts and t-shirts in the middle drawer. Fabric accessories like my hair ribbons went into the top drawer.

Amelia’s things were tossed onto her bed. When she returned, she could deal with them.

I didn’t even want to go down the road of “if” she returned. Because every missing person would be found. Alive and well. Amelia would come back. We would joke about it in a year from now.

Uniforms and dresses were hung in the closet.

As I hung up a skirt, something crinkled in the pocket. Confused, I reached inside to find out what was inside.

A piece of paper, worn, from having gone through the wash. I unfolded it, and wondered if the writing had survived the water and soap.

It was a little blurry, but I could still make it out.

An address on campus. One of the teacher’s houses.

Huh, that’s weird. Why would I have this? And it wasn’t in my handwriting either.

But as I continued to stare down at it, something seemed familiar about the sloppy handwriting. The way that the letters all looped together.

And then I remembered. My first day of classes. Luca had known that something was up between me and Professor Schuyler. He’d given me his dad’s address on the campus… in some weird hope that maybe I’d hook up with his dad and get his dad to stop pestering him, I guess.

Luca might not have ever told me this specifically, but Luca’s motives were usually Luca-based.

I had skipped out on meeting Professor Schuyler for tea this afternoon because I’d been so anxious to see if Amelia really was missing or not. And then I was thrown into a depression over the fact that she was.

I took a look at the alarm clock on our shared nightstand and was surprised to see how late that it had gotten. I’d had way more clean laundry to sort through than I had thought.

But it wasn’t that late. It wouldn’t be weird if I showed up at his door like this… right?

Of course, that was completely ignoring the question of how I got his home address in the first place.

Before I could second-guess myself, I pulled on my jacket and was out the door.

The halls of the dorm were quiet and empty. More than half of the girls were missing by now. And the ones who remained were like me: stunned into a depressive funk.

Nobody stopped me as I walked out the front door. Alone.

I half-expected for Ms. Nevin to burst out of her room as I opened the front door, but… nothing happened.

I was uneasy as I walked across campus to get to the back part, where the teacher housing was. I’d never been here before, and I’d never had any reason to before.

But the address listed on the paper Luca had given me was easy enough to understand. Much like the rooms in the dorm, the houses were laid out in a simple pattern, with the numbers going up higher the further back you got.

Once I realized this, I started to jog in order to reach the house faster.

And then I stood in front of number 43. Conrad Schuyler’s private residence on campus… and Luca’s home away from the dorm.

I paused for a second, but then I marched up the short drive and knocked on the door. I didn’t come all this way to chicken out now.

I waited for a moment before the door cracked open. And then it was thrown open completely and I was dragged inside by Professor Schuyler.

“Dymphna? What in the world are you doing here? How did you get my address?”

“Er… Luca gave it to me,” I said quietly. I couldn’t quite meet his gaze.

“Luca?” There was a hint of warning in his voice, and he wasn’t speaking to me.

“Yes? Who’s at the…” Luca appeared from the other room. He seemed just as surprised to see me as Professor Schuyler had been.

But a second later, and the look of surprise was quickly replaced by a huge grin.

“I’m glad that you’re here. We’re just in the middle of dinner. Did you eat?”

I shook my head slightly, not knowing how to react to this.

“Then come on. Let me fix you a plate. Conrad made spaghetti. It’s… kind of the only thing that he knows how to cook somewhat decently.”

I let Luca pull me into the kitchen-dining room area. It was a warm-looking room, with an open floor plan that led from the fridge in one corner to a small dining table in the opposite corner. There were two plates on the table already, the food half-eaten.

Luca released me only to pull out another plate from the cabinet. He then dished out plenty of spaghetti, meatballs, sauce, broccoli, carrots, and pears onto my plate. Way more than I could possibly eat under normal circumstances, let alone when I was feeling so bad.

Professor Schuyler joined us at the table as we sat down.

“Er, Luca, why did you give Dymphna my address?” he said through clenched teeth.

“What? You act like I do this regularly. I’ve never done this before. And besides, aren’t you happy to see her? Why, you were just… Ow! Why did you kick me?”

“You should be grateful that the only thing I did was kick you.” If looks could kill, Luca would have been six feet under by now.

“Fine,” Luca said coolly. He shoveled spaghetti into his mouth as quickly as possible and then stood. “I can tell that I’m not wanted here anyway. Besides, I feel like I’d just be in the way if I were to stay here.”

“Luca-” Professor Schuyler called out after him. The front door slammed a second later. We both winced.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“You’re here now,” he said just as softly. “You might as well eat something. Did you really not eat dinner earlier?”

I shook my head.

“Why? And why did you miss our tea earlier?” His tone wasn’t angry, just curious.

The emotions that I’d tried to bury with sorting and putting away clean laundry came back in a rush. I couldn’t help the fat tears that streamed down my cheeks.

“D-Dymphna?” he said with some alarm.

“It’s Amelia,” I sobbed. “She wasn’t here this morning, and now she’s just gone. I was scared with all of the stuff, but none of it seemed all that bad because I had Amelia.”

Professor Schuyler reached out and put his hand on top of my own. “Dymphna, we’re going to find them. And there’s been no indication of what happened to them, so we’re still operating on the belief that they’re all still alive.”

“That’s not reassuring!” I said between gasping sobs. “It’s been months and nobody’s any closer to finding them than when Jasmine first disappeared!”

I sat there and cried over the plate Luca had made up for me. Professor Schuyler sat and stared at me until I calmed down.

“I’m sorry,” I said around after-cry hiccups. “I barged in here and I ruined your evening.”

“No, I don’t think that you did much damage,” he said with a heavy sigh. “In all actuality, Luca would have done something or another to piss me off in the end, and likely would have stormed out of here on his own sooner or later anyway. And you’re right about the progress that’s been made about everything. We haven’t found any trace of the students, no matter how many go missing. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the pattern of them being taken, and, aside from the fact that they were all from here, they don’t really have that much in common. Boys, girls, of all ages, from all classes, with varying magical abilities. If it was something dangerous, then we would have found the bodies, or some trace of the murder. But there’s been completely, absolutely nothing. However, the fact that we’ve found no traces of any murders taking place gives us some slim sliver of hope that they actually are still alive.”

“And that they’re being held somewhere?” I said as I wiped at my eyes with my wrist.

“Yes, but we don’t know where.” He looked down at the plate. “You should eat something.”

I picked up the fork and began to eat. “It’s good,” I said quietly.

“I’m not that bad of a cook,” he said with a scoff. “Luca just don’t have much good to say about me on the best of days.”

We ate in silence for a moment. It was a weird mixture of the tense silence when I first arrived at the school and a, dare I say, domestic comfort. I began to wonder what our life would be like if we were to get married. Or at least live together.

Would we spend our evenings in a quiet comfort like this, discussing Luca’s latest misbehavior, Professor Schuyler’s classes, and whatever I spent my days doing?

I was interrupted from that line of thought when an origami bird flew in through the window. It hovered in front of Professor Schuyler’s face for a moment before it fluttered down to rest beside his plate. He grabbed it, and it instantly unfolded. He read through it quickly, and then got up to respond to whatever message was inside. He released it again, and it refolded itself back into a bird and took off through the window that it had come through.

“Dymphna, why did you come here tonight?” he said quietly. He remained at the desk in the living room, with his back to me.

“Amelia-” I started.

“Yes, but why specifically here?” he said as he turned around to face me. “Surely somebody that you are close with remains at the dorms.”

I closed my eyes and breathed in sharply through my nose. “Aside from Amelia, you’re my closest friend. I’ve told her everything about the two of us, and she’s been insanely understanding.”

He sat back down again, but didn’t pick up his fork. “I think that it would be best if you stayed the night. It’s late, and the attacks usually happen when it’s dark like this.”

“I… I didn’t bring anything with me,” I said quietly. I really hadn’t thought any of this through.

“Luca keeps a few things here for the odd occasion when he spends the night. You can just use whatever you like.” He motioned to my plate. “Are you finished?”

“Yeah,” I said. “With everything that’s been happening, it’s killed my appetite.”

He sighed but stood up anyway. “Then I’ll show you to Luca’s room.”

We walked down a short hall. There were three rooms; one of the doors was opened and I could see that it was the bathroom.

“My room, and this is Luca’s,” he said as he gestured to the door at the end of the hall. He opened the door and I saw a mildly messy clutter that indicated that a teenage boy lived there. At least, part of the time. It was clear that when Luca wasn’t around, Professor Schuyler made some effort to clean up after his son.

Professor Schuyler walked in and pulled open the dresser. He pulled out a t-shirt and some lounge pants, which he tossed to me. “I’ll put out some things for you in the bathroom,” he said curtly. He spun around on his heel and quickly left the room.

I changed into the clothes, but they were more than a little big for me. Luca was easily twice my size, so it was no wonder. I listened at the door, but I didn’t hear anything. This was beyond awkward. How in the world was I supposed to sleep with Professor Schuyler just a few feet away?

I finally stepped out, and almost smacked into Professor Schuyler.

He gave an awkward cough. “If you need anything else, I’ll be in my room. Good night, Dymphna.”

“G-Goodnight, Professor,” I whispered.”

* * *

Sleep did not come easily to me that night. I tossed and turned for the longest time, and when I finally did drift off, my dreams were horrific.

“Dymphna,” somebody whispered as they shook me awake. “Dymphna. Wake up. You’re having a dream.”

I awoke, disoriented as anything, and confused to where I was. Professor Schuyler knelt by my bedside, and then I remembered.

I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his chest. He smoothed down my hair and whispered nonsense to me until I calmed down.

Not once did he say anything like “It was only a dream”. I think that we both knew that my nightmare was brought on by the hellish reality that I now found myself in.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered once I’d calmed down. “I keep interrupting everything that you’re doing tonight. First dinner, and now your sleep.”

“I heard you crying out, and I was worried that you were being attacked,” he said. He didn’t stop stroking my hair.

“Thanks for worrying about me,” I said quietly. I wanted to add that I was okay now, but I also didn’t want for him to leave. Not just yet. “Um… will you stay with me? Until I fall asleep.”

His hand paused, and a weird look flashed across his face. I couldn’t quite read it, but it didn’t matter.

“Yes,” he said without any hesitation in his voice. “Of course.”

He stood but walked over to the other side of the bed. He didn’t get under the covers, but he wrapped his arms around me through the blankets.

The last thought I had before I drifted off to sleep was that I could get very, very used to this.

* * *

Note between Randolph and Conrad

 

_Conrad_

_Mona reports that Dymphna is not in her room. Before we send out the search parties for her as well, I just wanted to double check that she wasn’t with you. If she is, I highly recommend that she remain the night with you. Before you say anything, please remember that most those who’ve gone missing have disappeared during the night._

_Also, please remember the meeting in regards to closing the school first thing tomorrow morning._

_Randolph_

 

_Randolph_

_Dymphna is with me. She was insanely upset over the disappearance of her roommate, and for some reason, came to me tonight. Apparently my no-good son gave her my address._

_I will keep her here. You are right; it’s not safe. So far, no teachers have gone missing, but it’s probably only a matter of time._

_I will be there tomorrow._

_Conrad_

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

Is if it wasn’t bad enough that Dymphna came to my house tonight, but everything just happened all at once. The mood between us after Luca left was almost domestic, in a sense. It’s been something that I’ve longed for ever since Aulelia’s passing, but something that I had resigned myself to never have. Especially not with Luca.

But Luca is my son, not my lover.

And it’s not like I consider Dymphna to be my lover, by any means. She is my student first and foremost. A tiny fact that I think Randolph often overlooks or maybe even forgets.

But tonight, it was almost like I had forgotten that, myself. Especially when I saw her in Luca’s clothes that I gave her to wear to bed. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine if she was wearing my own clothes instead.

And then, when she cried out in her sleep, it was all that I could do to comfort her. She just looked so broken. And she shook in my arms and clung to me like I was the last thing keeping her sanity together.

Which, maybe I am.

I wanted to kiss her, but had to remind myself that she’s off limits.

Did I have to lie in bed next to her? No. But nobody else has to know.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this, please don't be shy! Leave kudos and/or a review!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you spot any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them!

I woke the next morning, groggy and disoriented, but felt a lot better than I had the night before. Professor Schuyler was asleep behind me, with an arm draped over my waist.

I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that it would look bad if I was seen leaving from his house in the exact same clothes that I’d worn the day before.

“Professor, wake up,” I said as I shook him.

He shot awake, and looked at me for a moment before he jerked back away from me.

“Dymphna,” he said, his voice thick with sleep. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” The look on his face seemed to indicate that it had been his intention, but I ignored it.

“I have to go back to the dorm now,” I said as I got out of bed. “I need to change into a fresh uniform.”

“What time is it?” he said as he sat up. He picked up the alarm clock on the nightstand. “I have a meeting in a little bit. Let me get dressed, and then I’ll walk you over to the dorm.”

I nodded with agreement, and he got out of bed and made his way to the door. “Oh, and Dymphna?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Um… sure?”

“Could you maybe call me Conrad? But only when we’re in private.” His back was to me, so I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking.

All I knew was that my heart was hammering. “O-Of course,” I somehow managed to stammer out. “C-Conrad.” His name felt heavy yet familiar on my tongue. It made me feel giddy.

He nodded once before he left the room.

I scrambled to get redressed in my uniform from last night. I don’t think that I’d ever gotten dressed so fast in my life.

I met Profe… Conrad by the front door. He was ready for his day as well… although he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

We headed outside together. “Just so that you’re not completely blindsided by this, the ministry is looking to close the school soon,” Conrad said quietly.

“What?” I said quietly. I felt a mixture of emotions. Sorrow, anger, frustration. Mostly, I just felt empty. It made sense that they would close the school. But that didn’t mean that I had to like it.

Conrad looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Judging by the look on your face, you’ve already answered your own question.”

I sighed heavily. “What am I going to do if the school closes?”

“You will go back to your hometown,” he said simply. “You’ll open up that vet clinic like you’ve always dreamed about.” He shrugged slightly. “Maybe I’ll come visit you sometime.” He gave me a look that indicated that he wanted to do more than just simply drop by for a vacation.

I didn’t press him about it. Now wasn’t the time to get into any of that.

We reached the girl’s dorm, and we both stopped short. “I’ll… talk with you later, if at all possible,” he said quietly. “I know that- And you’re going to have to work extra hard in order to make up for this, Ms. Ó’Nualláin.”

I looked up sharply and saw that there were some girls coming out from the dorm.

“Yes, of course sir,” I said. “I’ll see you in class.”

I ran inside without another word. That was so painful and awkward. And the all of the business about shutting down the school.

As I pulled off my uniform from the day before and started to redress in a fresher one, I heard a whisper.

I spun around, but of course I was alone.

“Dymphna…” the voice whispered to me.

“W-who’s there?”

“Just your friend, Dymphna,” the voice replied. It sounded so silky smooth, so friendly. I wanted to believe that it really was my friend. “Won’t you come out and play with me, Dymphna?”

“But… I have class…”

“You heard your lover,” the voice whispered. “The school will be shut down. There’s no point in attending classes. Not today. Not ever. Just come out and play with me.”

The voice was completely right. Conrad had told me that the school would be closed. It was pointless to go to classes. The teachers would just waste our time today.

I turned and walked from the room, and left the building via the back door.

Strange. It was normally locked. Especially with all of the students going missing.

“Yes, that’s right, Dymphna,” the voice said sweetly. “Just keep walking. I’m right over here.”

It was as if the voice blew all and any thoughts of personal safety and the school and my worries from my mind. I continued to walk closer towards the start of the forest.

As soon as I stepped past the first trees, the thing came out from the shadows. In one second, it was a beautiful girl around my age. But between one blink and the next, the girl transformed into a hideous monster.

It had the body of a snake, but it was as if the snake had gorged itself just moments ago, and then strapped bands at intervals all over its body. It had the back legs of a goat, and the front feet were that of a lion.

But the face… the face remained of the beautiful girl. It would have been enchanting if not for the disturbing body.

The hair that had been golden and shiny on the human body, was now straw-like and stringy, like it hadn’t been washed in over a month. It hung over her eyes, and only parted around a pair of giant, moss-dripping antlers that grew from her forehead.

I let out the loudest shriek, one that I didn’t even know that I was even capable of making.

The thing lurched towards me, and I did the only thing I could think of: I screwed my eyes shut and tried to cast a spell.

It didn’t quite have the intended effect however…

* * *

Randolph, Conrad, all of the other teachers, as well as half of the ministry who were present for the investigation stood outside the auditorium. A unanimous decision had just been reached about closing the school. There was an odd, mournful air to the group, as they discussed what the next step was.

“I’ll just go tell the students to meet in the auditorium,” Randolph said finally. He turned to go…

When the air was filled with a loud boom. It was like a crack of thunder, only ten times louder. A flash of light was seen as well, from the forest.

“What the…?” Vincent gasped with surprise as they all looked towards the forest.

“S-Something’s happening in the forest!” a student screamed as she ran towards the group of teachers. Other panicked students raced past them for the relative safety of the school.

The teachers and knights didn’t need to be told twice. They all took off running in the direction that the sound and light-show had come from.

“Get into the school!” Randolph ordered before he took off. “Klaus, you must protect the students at all costs!”

As the group grew closer to the forest, they saw that all of the windows in the girl’s dorm near where the incident had occurred had been blown out. There was also a huge explosion area where trees looked like they’d been evaporated on the spot. There was an impact crater where nothing was touched. Yet.

“The forest is on fire!” Glenn said. They rushed forward, and quickly doused the half-started forest fire with water spells.

“What the hell caused this?” the math teacher whispered as she looked around in confusion.

“Could it be related to the other missing students?” the English teacher said.

“It’s possible,” Vincent said with a nod.

“But none of the other students reacted like this? Or at least, if they had, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”

They all exchanged a look. “Fan out and search the area,” Vincent said. “No matter what caused this, it can’t possibly be good.”

They split up into groups of two or three and set off to look for any clues of what might have happened. It wasn’t the first time that the staff and the ministry agents had searched the forest; they’d done it following Jasmine’s disappearance, and again following the disappearance of the other four students. After that, they’d started thinking in different ways, and the searches had been limited to just the parameter of the forest, in case something appeared. It was obvious after the first five that there was nothing to be found in the forest in regards to that.

Conrad found himself with the school’s physician. They said nothing, their entire focus on the forest around them. The only other sounds were from the others moving around, just out of sight from where the two of them were searching.

“Look,” Dr. Porcher said. He bent down and picked up something off from the ground. Conrad frowned and stepped closer to see what it was.

A pink ribbon. But not just any ribbon. He knew this ribbon very well.

And at the sight of it, he suddenly understood what had happened.

“Randolph!” Conrad cried out. “It was her! It was Dymphna!” He took off running deeper into the forest without waiting for word from anybody. His heart hammered in his chest. He just hoped to find her before it was too late.

He didn’t know what he’d do if she vanished, too.

* * *

I staggered deeper into the forest. A loud roar sounded behind me, and indication that the thing— whatever it might be— was still on my trail. My side stung with an injury. Blood had already stained the side of my shirt bright red, and it dripped down everywhere. I know that I was leaving an obvious trail, but I couldn’t exactly help it. If I stopped moving… well…

“I’ll get you! You’re the strongest that I’ve encountered yet! You’ll make a delicious snack before I finally move on to the teachers at that little academy!”

I changed direction at random, in some vain hope of throwing the monster off my trail. I knew that it was hopeless, but if I stopped, then I would die.

I wished that I had my wand, but I’d lost track of it following the explosion. It had probably been destroyed. If I had it, then maybe I had a fighting chance against that thing.

I cursed my inability to control my magic. But then again, maybe that explosion had saved my life.

Or at least prolonged it a tiny bit more.

Tears fell from my eyes, although I was quick to brush them away. I didn’t need any more problems right now. I couldn’t afford to think about dying out here, at the hands of that monster.

I paused when I passed through something. It felt like I’d run through a spider-web, but it was somehow wet? The air seemed to ripple around me.

Some kind of magical barrier.

“I have you right where I want you, my little snack!”

Oh no. Had I unwittingly run straight into the monster’s lair?

I paused slightly when I saw something straight ahead of me. It looked almost human like. But more like a mummy.

I gritted my teeth and raced towards the figure. As I got closer, more humanoid figures came into sight. There were dozens of them.

Could it be the missing students?

When I got close enough to the first figure, I had to fight back my repulsion at the sight. It looked like in the horror movies with the giant spiders who trap all of the humans in the webs.

But this looked more like… some sort of opalescent saliva, maybe?

I ran up to the first figure and hesitatingly touched it. I was expecting for it to be slick, wet even. But instead, it felt kind of sticky. Like half-dried nail polish that’s kind of tacky.

I bit back my revolution at the thought, and quickly sunk my fingers into the face area of the figure. The material was a lot thicker than I had imagined, but it came away with little to no effort on my part.

I drew back with a startled gasp when I saw who it was: George Travis. We’d had math together, but he’d vanished a couple of weeks ago. I put my hand under his nose, and was relieved to feel his breath against my hand.

Whatever that monster was doing with all of the students she’s taken, she wasn’t killing them. At least, not right now.

I ran over to the next figure and pulled the goop off from its face. Iskra Tomic. A junior who had disappeared near the beginning of this mess. She was alive, too.

“Come out come out where ever you are, little snack!”

I panicked and looked around for a place to hide. There wasn’t much, but I had a plan. I quickly scooped up some of the goop that I’d pulled off from Iskra’s husk and packed it onto my side where I’d been hit with flying shrapnel from an exploded tree. It felt gross, but it was just sticky enough to stay attached to my skin. And it stopped the bleeding.

It might make me sick, but at least the thing couldn’t follow me via my blood anymore. I ducked behind some of the other missing students and waited.

* * *

Conrad raced through the forest. There was a trail of blood… a little too much in his opinion. But it made following where Dymphna had run off to easy.

However, if she hadn’t managed to kill the thing that had scared her enough to do that, then the blood probably made Dymphna an easy target.

Worry and anxiety gnawed at Conrad’s mind. Why would she come out here on her own? She knew that it wasn’t safe. Why didn’t she run back towards the dorms, at least? Towards relative safety, and others who could help her.

The monster must have given chase, he thought.

He just thanked whoever might be listening that Dymphna was an insanely powerful wizardess, and yet, was so untrained as to accidentally burn down the entire forest because she was afraid.

That massive explosion could possibly lead them to the only real clue as to the missing students. At least, he hoped that this is what it was about.

He paused when he saw a magical barrier up ahead. They had searched and researched and combed over the forest so many times. How in the world had they missed this?

Unless…

Dymphna’s explosion might have done something to it. On a magical level. He cautiously approached, his wand at the ready.

As he had thought, the barrier was damaged somehow. Weakened. He passed through it easily enough. But now he was on edge, because whatever had made that was clearly insanely powerful. All of the staff at the school plus the knights had somehow overlooked it, time and time again. Whatever lived here did not want to be found.

The blood on the ground indicated that Dymphna had slowed down once she’d passed through the barrier, too. And then she had really picked up the pace.

He glanced ahead, and wondered what he might find. Some horrible monster hovering over her prone body, maybe?

What he saw instead was not any better. He raced towards the figures, and saw George Travis’s face poking out from the goop. He looked over towards Iskra, and then his heart stopped.

A panicked scream. Followed by a second explosion.

* * *

My second explosion was way more unexpected than the first had been. I was used to magical outbursts, but never without my wand, and never without actual intent. Of course, my main intent was only to keep that thing away from me, so maybe I had a little bit of intent.

It limped towards me, clearly wounded. However, the wounds of the flesh didn’t seem to bother it too much, as it still had that cruel grin on its creepy, human face.

“You might as well give up now, little snack! You’re slowly running out of energy— both physical and magical. Soon, you’ll be among my collection. Did you see it?”

“Yeah, I saw it,” I sad through gritted teeth. “We’ve been looking for those, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just take them all back to the school with me.”

She bristled, and for the first time, her face showed an emotion other than “creepy smile”. She barred her teeth in a hiss, and I saw that they were all sharp and pointy.

“You have no idea how long it took me to find the perfect feeding ground! For decades, I wandered, feeding off of the stray wizard here, the stray wizardess there… Your kind does like to mingle with the humans, so it makes feeding hard. But here…” She licked her lips. Opalescent saliva dripped from her mouth and onto the ground. “Here it was beyond easy pickings. Just a little whispered word here, a little bit of promising there… My first couple of trophies walked willingly to me! Almost like you did!”

It took a step closer to me, followed by another. I backed up until I ran into one of my classmates.

“And now, your time has come, too. You’ll make a fine addition to my collection, Dymphna!”

It lurched for me. I closed my eyes, and tried to find even one last drop of magic left in me for one more explosion. If I was going to die, then I would take this asshole out with me.

“Magia flau!”

The words were shouted behind me. Between one second and the next, a bright shield separated me from the monster.

“Huh? Conrad?” I had never been happier in my life to see him. I wobbled a little, and he caught my shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he said urgently, his voice low.

“I’ve… been better,” I said. Now that I didn’t have to fight too much longer, it felt like the strength was running away from me.

“Acies ventos!” another voice called out from nearby. I vaguely recognized that it belonged to Professor Randolph.

“Dymphna?” Conrad said. His voice sounded so distant, even though he was right there. “DYMPHNA!”

* * *

I awoke in a groggy haze, uncertain of where I was or how I’d gotten there. Nothing looked familiar at all.

The last thing I remembered was being in the forest with that… thing. And then Conrad had shown up, and I was certain that Professor Randolph had as well.

Obviously they had rescued me. Possibly some others as well.

I pushed the blankets off and saw that I was in a hospital gown. I pulled part of it away to check my side, and saw that it was now healed, although there was some bruising to indicate where the wound had been.

There was a gentle knock on the door, and Dr. Porcher stuck his head into the room. “Ah, I’m glad to see that you’re awake now, Dymphna. You had us all worried. How do you feel?”

“Uh… Sore?” I said with some hesitation. “Exhausted.”

“Yes, that’s to be expected. You released a lot of magical energy. Twice. And you were badly wounded. I don’t know what the gunk is that the missing students were kept in, but it at least stopped you from bleeding out. So good thinking there.”

“The other students!” I gasped. “Are they okay?”

“Yes. After we took care of that… thing in the forest, we transported the students back to the school. We don’t exactly have the kind of room to house them all in the infirmary, so we set up a temporary medical camp in the classrooms. Which, of course, are not in use what with everything that happened. After we pulled off all of the gunk from the students, they woke up.”

“Oh good, I’m glad. Are they going to be okay?”

“Yes. The strange thing is, it’s almost like no time at all has passed for them. Jasmine, the first to be taken, is confused as to how a couple of months could have passed. She’s more upset over having missed the dance than anything.” He smirked. “But that’s good for them in the long term. It’s probably for the best that they don’t have any memories of what happened to them. And now, if you don’t mind…” He pulled his wand out. “I’d like to do one last exam on you. Just to make sure that you’re still alright. Please sit down.”

I sat on the edge of the bed. He cast a simple medical check spell over me. It would tell him instantly if there was something wrong with literally any part of me, from my head to my toes, and every little bit in between. I felt a slight tingle as the spell washed over me, and then the sensation faded as quickly as it had appeared.

“Everything seems good, but I’d like to keep an eye on that side wound of yours. We still don’t quite know what that thing in the forest was. And none of the other students were wounded when they went into the spit cocoons. I want to see you back here in two days, missy. That’s on Monday. After classes.”

“Huh? Wait! It was Wednesday! Please don’t tell me…”

“You were really out of it, Dymphna. You drained yourself dry. Everybody was insanely worried about it. But I told them that, considering the immense stress that your body had undergone, it was almost to be expected.”

He stood and walked to the door. “And somebody who was the most worried about you is waiting outside to see you.” He opened the door and stepped outside, but didn’t close it. “She’s awake. You can see her now.”

Conrad stepped into the room. The door closed behind him— Dr. Porcher giving us privacy— but Conrad didn’t really seem to notice too much. He crossed the room in long strides, and pulled me into his arms.

And then his lips were on mine. Possessive. Worried. Hungry.

I clung to him, shaking slightly from the emotions that ran through me. It was my first kiss, and I didn’t know what to think.

He pulled back after a moment, but didn’t release me.

“Don’t you ever do that again!” he yelled at me. Uh-oh. This was his “You did something stupid in class” voice. I’d heard it about a thousand times before. “Do you know how completely out of my mind with worry that I was? You could have been killed! Your dangerous disregard for your magical abilities almost got you killed! As well as your inability to stay out of trouble!”

I looked up into his face and was surprised to see that he was near tears.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I hung my head in shame. “That thing… it got inside my head. It spoke to me like it was my friend. It knew things about me. Things that I’d never told even Amelia about. That’s how it lured me out to the forest. But then, it revealed its true self… I was so scared. I tried to cast a spell, but…”

He hugged me tight. “I’m somehow grateful that the spell backfired. It gave us the first real clue that we’d been searching high and low for. I wish that it had been some other student, but maybe… Your inability to do anything without burning down the entire stupid forest saved you. For once.”

I shook my head as tears fell from my eyes. “If you hadn’t come when you had… I don’t think that I would have made it. That thing was ready to grab me like it had the others.”

He brushed the tears off from my cheeks with his thumb. “You’re safe now. The missing students are safe, too, because of you. And Dr. Porcher says that you’re okay, physically.” He started to cry. “I was so scared, Dymphna. I felt like I’d just found you. I was at war with my feelings for you. But seeing your ribbon in the forest… Seeing you facing down that monster, wounded and without a wand… Seeing you in that hospital bed for two fucking days! It… reminded me of all that I had to lose.”

His lips found mine again, and we kissed, over and over.

Finally, we pulled apart from one another and just looked at each other. “You should get dressed. And then let’s go home.”

* * *

From the journal of Conrad Schuyler

Running out to the forest, seeing her like that… Having her pass out in my arms like that. I was so afraid. I wasn’t sure if she would ever wake up.

Those two days, waiting by her beside were the most painful days that I’ve experienced since Aulelia’s death.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to leave a review and/or kudos!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU'RE WELCOME. (You know what this is.)

It was evening outside. With everything that had happened, I hadn’t even noticed what time of day that it was. “Are the students really okay?” I said to Conrad as we walked along.

“Yes,” he said slowly. “The only worrying thing is their lost time. But people have been coming to the school to study all of them, and they seem to be in the same shape as when they were taken.” He glanced as me from the corner of his eye. “Truthfully, we’ve all been more worried about you.”

I wish that he’d at least take my hand. But I understood that things couldn’t be like that between us when we were out in public. At least, not while I was still a student at the school.

I felt like we’d come a long way from when Professor Randolph first decided that we should be buddies to us… confessing our love for one another in the school infirmary.

I was more than a little surprised when Conrad turned down the path that would take us to the teacher’s housing. I followed him without a word.

Was this what he’d meant by “home”? Us, together?

We ran into nobody as we walked along. Not another student, and not a teacher. I wanted to know where everybody was. If the school was safe now, wouldn’t all of the students be streaming outside? Running around and enjoying their newfound freedom?

But in a way, I was grateful that we encountered nobody else, since it meant that nobody would question why we were together. Or why Conrad was leading me back to his house.

We got inside and stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“Er… are you hungry?” he said after a moment.

I shook my head slightly. "I'm honestly still kind of out of it from everything. I don't hurt, but my body feels so sore."

"You should eat," he insisted. "Dr. Porcher gave you broth while you were unconscious, but you should have a real meal. Something light, though. I'll make you something. You relax, okay?"

He left the room, and I sunk onto the sofa.

I closed my eyes, and let myself just drift for a moment. I felt so tired, almost to the point where I questioned if I was ever going to feel back to normal ever again.

I heard Conrad moving around in the kitchen.

"Dymphna?" he said after a moment. He was right in front of me. I opened my eyes, uncertain of how much time had passed. Had I actually fallen asleep, or had it only just been a minute or two?

Conrad held out a plate with a sandwich on it. I took it with some hesitation and started to eat. Conrad sat down on the sofa next to me and watched me like a hawk. It was almost as if he believed that if he didn't keep a close eye on me, that I would somehow blink out of existence or something.

I hadn’t felt overly hungry, but as soon as I took my first bite, I suddenly felt ravenous. I devoured the sandwich in short time.

“Do you want another?”

“Yes please,” I said quietly. I got up and followed him into the kitchen.

“I’m glad,” he said as he put together another one. “It must mean that you’re feeling better if you’re hungry.”

I was halfway through my third sandwich when I was hit by an overwhelming wave of exhaustion. I put the sandwich back down on the plate and stared at it for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Conrad asked. It wasn't hard to miss the alarm and worry in his voice.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "Just tired." I pushed the plate over towards him. "I think that I'll go to bed now."

"Alright," he said as he stood as well. "Er... Luca was kind of upset when he found out that you'd spent the night in his bed. And wore some of his things."

I offered him a wane smile and a roll of my eyes. "You don't have to lie in order to get me to share a bed with you, Conrad."

"It's not a lie," he said with a frown. "Truthfully, I think that Randolph told him about his plan to get us together. In Luca's mind, maybe if I had somebody else to focus my attention on, then I wouldn't ride his case all the time. So... that was probably a lot of his motive behind his anger."

He opened the door to his room and motioned me inside.

It was decorated a lot like his office. Not a lot of clutter, but there were a lot of books. The bed was messy, with blankets kicked all over the place. There were two pictures on the nightstand. One was of Luca, when he was much younger.

The other was a woman.

My breath caught when I saw her. She wore a pink dress that looked almost identical to the one that Grace had made up for me. Her hair was also styled in the same way that mine had been. There were tiny differences, like our make-up and accessories. And of course, just our physical appearances were so different, that nobody could ever confuse the two of us.

Conrad turned back to me with a shirt and lounge pants in hand. “Er, that’s Luca’s mother,” he said quietly when he saw what I was looking at.

“She’s beautiful,” I said, unable to take my eyes off from her. “What was her name?”

“Aulelia.”

“What happened to her?”

“She died as a result of childbirth complications. It was… She…” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “No. Never mind. I don’t want to get into that right now. You can sleep in these.”

I accepted the clothes and went into the bathroom to change.

Before I left the room, I looked at myself in the mirror. There were dark circles under my eyes, and I just looked physically exhausted. Nothing at all like Aulelia.

I had known about my feelings before I had been lured into the forest. But I just didn’t quite know how Conrad really, truly felt about me.

Was I ready to take this relationship to the next step?

It wasn’t that I thought that he would try anything. And I knew that if I told him to stop, that he would.

But the question was… did I want this or not?

Even just getting into bed with him was a little scary to think about. And it wasn’t just any bed; it was his bed. The bed that he slept in every night.

Did he lie awake at night and think about me?

Had he come back to the house these past two days and go through the motions of going to bed, only to lie awake and worry about me?

I slapped my cheeks slightly. There was not exactly a lot of point in thinking about that right now. I left the bathroom and went back into the room.

Conrad wasn’t there, although I don’t know if I was secretly disappointed or relieved. I climbed into his bed and turned the light off. I was asleep within seconds.

* * *

I awoke to the pre-dawn grey creeping in through the window curtains. Conrad was asleep behind me, his arm thrown around my waist like it had been the other morning.

It was hard to believe that that had happened just a few days earlier. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

I pulled away from Conrad and got out of bed. However, I must have jostled him a little too much, for he tightened his grip on me.

“Where do you think that you’re going?” he said, his voice thick with sleep.

“Bathroom,” I said quietly. He released his hold on me and I left the room.

When I got back, Conrad was sitting up in bed. He watched me expectantly, like he wasn’t sure what it was that I was going to do.

“Is there school today?” I said with some hesitation from the doorway.

“No,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “The students who were taken are still being quarantined in the classrooms and being examined by magical experts. We aren’t quite sure when classes will resume, but at least we feel a little bit better that the school won’t be closed.”

“Good,” I said quietly. “I didn’t want for the school to close.” Tears started to drip down my cheeks.

Conrad gestured for me to join him in the bed again. I walked over and climbed in. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead.

“None of that nonsense now,” he said sternly. “You’re a hero, Dymphna. All of those students were saved thanks to you. And the school as well.”

“Yes, you’re right,” I said lowly. I wiped the tears from my eyes. He kissed me gently.

“How did you sleep?”

“Surprisingly well, all things considered.” I looked up at him shyly through my lashes. “I think it’s because you were there to chase the nightmares away.”

“Good,” he whispered. “I’m glad.” He kissed me, over and over. I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and met his lips.

“Dymphna,” he said after a moment. He pulled away and looked at me. “Is this too much, too soon? You’re so young, and I don’t want to push you into something that you’re not ready for. Especially not a relationship with somebody so much older than you.”

“Stop that,” I said sharply. “I know that you’re my teacher, and that your child is two years older than me. But there was a reason why Randolph paired us up together. Don’t you think?”

He was silent for a moment. His eyes took me in, and his hand stroked my hair. "Sometimes, I'm still left scratching my head over Randolph's actions. But then, I would be in the middle of class, and somebody would do something stupid. And I would yell at them, and I'd be angry as anything. But thinking about telling you all about it later... That would stop me from going completely through the roof."

He lowered his gaze and dropped his hand. "After everything that happened between Aulelia and myself, I lost a lot of my friends. Randolph reached out, and he's helped me so much. But I was wary of letting anybody in, always worried that my past would catch up with me. Sooner or later. And..." He sighed heavily and looked back to me. "I think that Randolph saw how much I distanced myself from everybody. He saw how I isolated myself from everybody for so long." He shook his head. "I don't know what Randolph saw in your profile that made him think that we would be a good match. I still don't know how he does it. But the fact that he has such an absurdly high success rate with his matches should have been proof enough."

I leaned into him and kissed him. “I wish that things had been differently, too. But then I started to fall for you, and I thought that maybe it wasn’t so bad.” I kissed him again. “You know, you called me the hero. But in actuality, I wouldn’t have made if it wasn’t for you.”

"Dymphna," he murmured against my lips. He tangled a hand in my hair and kissed me deeply. He pulled back a moment later. "Please tell me if I'm going to fast for you." He paused and looked into my eyes. "Had you ever even kissed anybody before?"

I shook my head slightly. He smirked.

"Good. I don't want to be the gross person who only wants the virgin, but I'm glad that I'm your first. I don't want for you to have to go through all of that pain and suffering of being with a boy. Somebody who wants to use you as practice and toss you aside for somebody more serious. You deserve to have every inch of you worshiped."

He laid me back against the bed and started to kiss the side of my neck. His hands ran down my side, and slowly started to creep up the shirt of his that he'd given me to wear to bed last night.

I hadn't even known that I'd been ready for this kind of relationship until just now. Sometimes I had thought about it, but, as Conrad mentioned, I didn't want to waste my first time with somebody who only just wanted me for my body, and not everything else that came with it.

With some hesitation, his hands reached up under the shirt I wore and gently touched my breasts. I moaned slightly and moved under his touch. His fingers found my nipples and started to roll them between his index and thumb.

I gave a sharp cry and rocked against him. I felt him smirk against my neck.

"Do you like that," he whispered, his voice thick with lust.

"Y-Yeah," I gasped out somehow.

He pulled his hands away and helped me into a sitting position. His hands grabbed the hem of the shirt and in one swift move, he pulled it off from me.

He laid me back down again before he moved his mouth down to my breasts. He started to lick and suck on the nipples as his hands found the waistband of the pants he'd loaned me. Together, we managed to remove both pants and panties from me, and they were tossed aside with my shirt.

Once I was naked before him, I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me. He was looking at me so intently. I wanted to cover myself up, but tried not to hide my discomfort.

"You are a goddess," he eventually whispered. “And I am nothing but a humble parishioner, asking to drink at your temple.”

He bent over me and trailed kisses down my stomach until he reached the patch of hair that surrounded my pussy.

"Before I continue, is this okay?" he whispered as he looked up at me.

"Yes," I breathed. "Don't stop."

He parted my legs and leaned down before me. With gentle fingers, he spread my labia.

And then he licked me.

I gave a cry that was one part surprise, one part pleasure. I hadn't known that anything could feel that good.

I twisted my hand in his hair, and wrapped my legs around his back. I never wanted for him to stop.

That is, until something inside of me broke. It felt like I was falling to pieces. Like being hunted by the monster in the forest... except the complete and utter opposite of that.

My body shook and I couldn't help the strangled cry that left my lips.

"C-Conrad!"

"Yes my Dymphna," he breathed against my pussy. "Cum for me." He ran his tongue against me again, and I shattered around him over and over again.

Was this an orgasm? It was amazing.

Finally, my body felt like if this lasted any longer, then something horrible would happen. I gently pushed his head away from me, and he sat up.

“Was that okay?” he whispered.

I reached up and touched his chin, which was covered in my arousal fluid. “Yeah,” I said.

“Do you want to continue?”

“I just… Give me a minute.” I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. I felt like I’d taken some of that muscle relaxer that I sometimes got for the animals. Only somehow even better.

Conrad remained still and silent by my side. Finally, I cracked an eye open and looked up at him.

“What… do I do now?” I said slowly and with hesitation.

He silently pulled me into a sitting position. "You can touch me however you like," he whispered against my lips. He took my hands and pressed them against his chest.

I slowly ran my hands down to the hem of his shirt, and then slowly started to pull it off. He helped me to get it up over his head, where he then tossed it away completely.

He had the body of somebody who had once been in very good shape. I knew that he had been some kind of guard once upon a time, before Luca was born. But it was obvious now that those days were long behind him. But all things considered, he wasn't in horrible shape for his age.

Of course, I'd seen plenty of shirtless men before. Mainly while my peers played Ladilz. It was one of the biggest hobbies for the girls to sit and watch them play without their shirts on.

With some hesitation, I reached up and shyly touched his chest. I ran my fingers down, to his stomach, until I reached the top of his pants.

It was then that I finally noticed the massive tent in his pants. How had I missed it until now? Or had I simply just pushed it out of my mind because I wasn't quite ready to deal with it just yet?

He noticed my hesitation. “What’s wrong?” he whispered as he grabbed my hand. “Do you want to stop?”

I shook my head slightly. “I didn’t fight that stupid monster just to get scared of a…” I swallowed hard. “Show me what to do.”

He took my hand and gently placed it on top of the bulge. With his hand on top of mine, he started to move my hand up and down. After a moment, he released my hand, but I kept going on my own.

In a moment of pure bravery, I pulled his pants down enough to pull his cock out. It sprung free, and I blushed heavily at the sight of it. It was a lot bigger than I had thought.

Of course I’d seen pictures of penises in medical books before. But it was a lot different to see a picture right next to a drawing of the veins and organs than to see one in real life.

“Dymphna?” Conrad said with some hesitation once I’d stopped moving. “Are you alright?”

“It’s… not what I was expecting,” I stammered out somehow.

“It’s not going to bite,” he said with a smirk. His smile dropped a moment later. “Do you want to stop?”

“No,” I said without hesitation. “I want you.”

“Okay,” he said slowly. “Lie back.”

I did as he asked, and put my head on the pillow. He reached over to the nightstand and pulled out his wand. He tapped it onto my lower belly and whispered “Non vitae.” And then he repeated the process on his dick.

I frowned with confusion. “What was that?”

“Contraception spell. I don’t want any more children, and you don’t need the headache of having a baby and attending school at the same time.”

“Oh,” I said flatly. The reality of what we were about to do finally sunk in. But I had no doubts or worries in my mind. Because I trusted Conrad completely. And I loved him.

He settled between my legs and slowly eased himself into me. I winced a little, but it didn’t hurt like I’d heard that it would. Instead, the sensation was odd, foreign. But it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

He hit something inside of me, and it both hurt and yet sent shockwaves of pleasure through me. Like my orgasm earlier, but different somehow.

“Are you okay?” he whispered through clenched teeth. I nodded slightly.

He began to move slowly, as if he was afraid that he was going to hurt me somehow.

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me soundly. “Dymphna,” he whispered against my lips. “Dymphna.” He rested his forehead against mine and we stared into each other’s eyes. His eyes were so dark, that it was hard to tell where pupil ended and iris began.

After a moment, his face screwed up. He let out a low groan and I felt something wet moving inside of me. Something that hadn’t been there a second ago.

Conrad held me tightly, his eyes closed, his breathing hard. I wanted to ask him if he was alright, but I didn’t know what to say.

He finally opened his eyes and kissed me gently. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “It’s been so long since I was last with anybody. And god, you are so beautiful, Dymphna.”

I smiled up at him and kissed him tenderly to show him that it was alright. He pulled out from me, and something dripped from my pussy. But Conrad cleaned it up with a flick of his wand.

He set the wand aside and slowly started to rub at me with his fingers. I arched up against him and cried out as I came again.

Conrad fell back onto the bed and pulled me into his arms. He offered a lingering kiss to my temple. “How was it?”

“Great. Amazing. I feel wonderful.”

“Good,” he whispered. “I’m glad. No sloppy, rushed firsts for you, Dymphna.”

I sat up on my elbow and looked down at him. He opened his eyes and stared up at me. He offered me a tender smile. I brushed some hair off his forehead that was stuck there with sweat. I hadn’t felt hot during, but now that it was over, I realized that we were both covered in a fine layer of sweat.

“I love you,” I whispered.

He nuzzled against the palm of my hand. “I love you too, Dymphna.”

* * *

Headmaster Randolph hummed happily as he pulled a book out from his desk. Every page had the names of two people at the top. Then, right below, there were dates. The first date was the date that the couple had finally realized their love for one another. The second was their wedding date. The remaining dates varied from page to page. These were the birth-dates of any children that the couple had or adopted together. Some of those dates even had a secondary date after them… the date that the child started at the very school where their parents met.

He flipped through the book, pausing longer on others to reminisce about happy memories from days long past.

He finally reached the last page where something was written, and then flipped to the next page. He pulled out his pen and wrote at the top “Dymphna Ó’Nualláin and Conrad Schuyler”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope that you enjoyed it. If you spotted any errors, please let me know so that I can fix it!
> 
> Please show how much that you've been enjoying this by leaving a review and/or kudos!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! This is the last chapter, yes. It's shorter than the rest, mainly just to tie everything up.
> 
> I know that when I started posting this, I mentioned having started working on the Randolph version of this. Unfortunately, that's kind of... not going anywhere. But considering that this story sat around for a long time before I finished it, I'm not overly surprised one bit. Maybe some day...  
> (PS, what's this bullshit about Rembrandt getting his own route, but not Conrad, Randolph, Loran, or Amelia? I'm calling bullshit!)

Later that day, Conrad took me to see the students who’d been missing. I wanted to check with all of my friends, but making sure that Amelia was alright was my number one priority.

“We haven’t been letting any of the other students see them just yet,” Conrad said as we walked through the halls of the school. “We aren’t certain what sort of long-term effects that this might have, and wanted a chance to study them before we released them.”

“Then why are you allowing me?”

“Because you were already exposed,” he said with a smirk and a roll of his eyes. “Jasmine might have been under the longest, but you’re the one that picked up some of that slobber and slapped it on a bleeding flesh wound.”

He got to a room, and knocked on the door. One of the female English professors opened it, and gestured us inside.

“Dymphna!” Amelia cried out. She run up and hugged me tightly. Rebecca was there as well, along with a few other female friends.

“I’m so happy to see you,” I said to all of them as tears filled my eyes. “I was so worried about all of you. Especially you, Amelia. I just about fell to pieces when you weren’t there that one morning.”

“I’m sorry,” Amelia said with a heavy sigh. “I wish that I had something better to tell you, but I honestly don’t. I don’t remember anything. I went to bed one night, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in this room. Dr. Porcher told us what happened, but it’s still really hard to believe. We’re also being kept in here.”

“Say, Dymphna, do you happen to know when we’ll be getting out?”

“No, sorry,” I said with a slight shake of my head. “I don’t think that they themselves know much. What happened is a curiosity. Nobody knows what that thing is. All I know is that it told me that it feeds off of the emotions of wizards. So the school was practically a buffet for it.”

“Ugh,” several of the girls said in unison. Everybody in the room had gathered around me. I noticed Conrad and the English teacher were lingering near the door, but they were also listening to what I had to say.

“I can’t believe that we were cocooned by that thing though,” Rebecca said. “They showed us a picture of it from when they’d captured it. I can’t even imagine being chased through the woods by that thing.”

“And I was injured, too,” I said with a heavy sigh. I lifted up my shirt to show them the remains of the wound on my side. Everybody crowded around for a better look.

“Tell us what happened!” somebody said.

“Yeah! We’ve been stuck in here for days. Your visit is the most exciting thing that’s happened to us!”

“Okay,” I said with a chuckle. I went to sit down on one of the cots that had been put in the room; all of the desks and chairs were gone now.

* * *

I spent some time throughout the next couple of days visiting with all of the others who were in quarantine. Much like the first group, they all seemed happy to see me. They regarded me as their hero, even if they didn’t exactly remember what had happened to them. They also all seemed to welcome the distraction from doing nothing but endless tests, questioning, and sitting in the room with little to do.

But finally, the magical ministry decided that the rescued students didn’t pose a risk to anybody, and released them. School would resume first thing on Monday, which meant that I had to go back to sleeping at the dorms.

And although I was going to miss spending every spare moment alone with Conrad, I had so much that I wanted to talk with Amelia about. Away from prying ears.

“Mm, I’m glad to be out from that stupid classroom. I’m so sick of seeing it to the point where I almost want to not go back to classes at all!”

“Well I for one am just glad that things are finally getting back to normal,” I said with a sigh.

“So then,” Amelia said as she jumped over to my bed. She offered me a grin. “Whenever you’d come to the room, you’d always be with Professor Schuyler. And I never saw you with anybody else. What’s up with that.”

I offered her a huge smile. “Have I got so much to tell you about. It was only just a few days, but so much happened in that short amount of time.”

* * *

Later that afternoon, Conrad came to visit my room.

“Classes are starting up tomorrow, and there’s something important that you’ll need,” he said sternly. It amazed me how he could seemingly easily turn off his feelings for me in the presence of others.

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Your wand?”

“Oh. Right.” It had been destroyed during the initial explosion. Since I hadn’t been in class, and I’d been around Conrad pretty much twenty-four-seven since the incident had happened, I hadn’t needed to do any magic at all.

“We’ll go now, if you’re not busy gossiping with Ms. Nile.”

“Nope. I’m ready. Let’s go!”

“Bye! Don’t stay out too late!” Amelia sounded like a worried parent or something.

Conrad and I quickly left the dorm, and made our way to the school’s back gate. We didn’t say anything, and I’m sure to the casual observer, we were just student and teacher, out on an important errand together.

“I didn’t think that it was possible to grow attached to having you around in the house these past few days,” Conrad said once we could no longer see the school. “But I’m going to miss waking up next to you in the morning.”

“I know,” I said with a heavy sigh of my own. I’d gotten used to being able to touch him whenever I wanted, to make love right before we went to bed, and again in the morning. Shared looks over meals, and to talk freely without risk of being overheard.

And now, we’d have to go back to being professional and distant most of the time.

It hurt my heart to think about that. About how he’d have to pretend like he didn’t care about me any more than simply as a student.

The walk to the wand shop was quick and quiet. Afon had heard about what had happened, so he had a replacement wand waiting for me. We didn’t linger too long in the shop, a little eager to spend some time alone in town before we had to be back at the school.

As we walked around and looked at the little shops, our hands not quite touching, it also hurt my heart to think that this was probably the closest thing that we were going to have to an actual date. No shared milkshakes in a diner for us.

“Hey!” somebody called out to us. “Hey! I know the two of you!” It was a man, who was holding the hand of a heavily pregnant woman.

“Yes, we’re from the school,” Conrad said flatly.

“No, that’s not it…” the man said slowly. “You were from the dance that night.”

“The dance?” I repeated slowly, not quite understanding. The only thing I could think about was the disastrous school dance, the night Jasmine disappeared.

“You remember, right?” the man prompted. “The dance in the center of the town square?”

“Oh, that’s right,” I said with a blush. The final dance had us spinning faster and faster, and to switch partners frequently. After, they announced that whoever was left standing, them and the partner were destined to be together.

“You were another one of the couples at the end,” the man said. “We were left together, too. And I felt like I’d had feelings for Rosemary for some time, but I was too shy to tell her.”

“But after that night, we became a couple. And now we’re expecting our first child together.” Rosemary rubbed her hands over her massive belly.

“I was just very excited to see the two of you again,” the man went on with a grin. “And clearly out on a date at that. I’m glad to see that somebody else is happy because of that dance as well.”

Conrad and I exchanged a glance. These people saw right through us, and there was little point in denying any of what they were saying.

“I suppose that you’re still in school, then,” Rosemary said with a faint smile. “So you’re probably waiting until you graduate. But that’s good, too. Mark and I didn’t want to wait to start a family. But everybody is different, and I feel like there’s no wrong path. But… can I ask the two of you a question?”

“Of course,” I said without hesitation.

“We’re thinking of baby names,” Rosemary said with a smile. She continued to rub her belly. “So what are your names? Maybe we’ll name our child after you.”

“I’m Dymphna and this is Conrad.”

“Dymphna, that’s an unusual name,” Mark said. “What’s its origin?”

“It’s Irish, I think. From some old wizardess who became a saint.”

“It’s pretty,” Rosemary said with a smile. “I hope that it’s a girl, because that’s a great name. Anyway, we didn’t mean to keep you for so long. I hope to see you around some time!”

She and Mark walked away and vanished into a shop.

“That was…” I started.

“Weird?” Conrad supplied for me.

“I was going to say unusual, but weird works well too.” I smiled up at him.

He took my hand and laced our fingers together. We remained like that until the school gate came into view.

* * *

The next morning, I awoke to a note on my chest. I unfolded it, curious as to what it could be.

 

_Dymphna_

_Please meet in the school auditorium at 7 AM sharp. Bring your wand and acceptance letter._

_Headmaster Randolph_

 

“Yikes! I’m going to be late!” Without thinking, I threw on the first uniform that I came across, grabbed my wand, and fished my acceptance letter from my bag. I ran from the dorm and over to the auditorium just in the knick of time.

Just inside the door, I found not only the headmaster, but also Conrad.

“Um… what is this about?” I said as I walked over to them.

“We’re giving you early acceptance to the school, Dymphna,” Randolph said with a bright smile. “You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty and proven that you are worthy of attending this school. If you would please put your wand on this scale, and put your acceptance letter on the other side…”

I did as he asked. Slowly, the scale tipped to one side. The letter glowed slightly, and a big stamp appeared on it: ACCEPTED.

I let out a huge squeal of excitement and grabbed the letter to look at the magical stamp closer.

“I can’t believe it! This is a dream come true!”

“Congratulations, Dymphna,” Randolph said with a huge grin. “You’ve totally earned it. However, I would like to tell you that you’re being accepted under two conditions.”

“Huh?” My heart sank. “What kind of conditions?”

“The first being that Conrad can no longer be your teacher. You’ve been reassigned to another teacher for the rest of the year. This is because it would be a gross conflict of interest. I have no doubt that he could be objective towards you, but it might come into question down the road, with other magical agencies.”

“That seems fair,” I said with some sorrow. I was his lover, his girlfriend, after all. And it wasn’t like I would never see him anymore or anything. “And the second condition?”

“You’re being put on a fast-track to graduate in two years instead of four.” He slapped me on the shoulder. “You can thank me at your wedding.” He chuckled at that and walked away.

“Wait, w-wedding?!” I stammered. I blushed and looked over to Conrad, who looked equally flustered.

“I only just said that you shouldn’t be my student anymore,” he said quietly.

“But can I really graduate in two years?”

“Yes. Because you are a wonderful wizardess, Dymphna. You’ve come so far in just a few months. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going to be like in two years.”

I smiled up at him. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

“Plus, I know that you can do it because I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this, please don't be shy! I love reading reviews from everybody, even long after the story has been completed. Also, please feel free to drop off some kudos, too! 
> 
> Until next time. :)

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, please let me know by leaving kudos and/or a review! Seeing them makes me insanely happy. :)


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